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I mention in our EC2020 report that Druce and I witnessed the solar pillar off the Highland Coast (some miles off of Highland Point) in 2013. This is my first attempt at recreating that sighting.
The silhouette of Druce, the boat, and the seas (sans light column) are from an existing photo of the setting sun that very evening, 4 March 2013.
I scrubbed the sun and the sky from the original photo, added a new sky, and tried to recreate the scene we witnessed that evening near the end of nautical twilight. The original photo jarred my memory of that sunset. I remember I could not resist my eyes from the resulting twilight to the northwest.
Near the time when twilight was complete, I panned my eyes to the northwest one more time. The light from the setting sun, just below the horizon was illuminating ice crystals in the atmosphere, that illumination reflected off the sea into our eyes, and that light was converted to electrical impulses which our brains interpreted. All of which is a miracle really, but at the time we had no idea what we were seeing. Honestly, it kind of freaked us out.
