Hurry Up and Wait

That's what air travel seems to be these days. Get to the airport early to get through security. And them sit around until boarding. I know, the definition of a first world problem. Annoying nonetheless.

Even more so when one is on the plane but going nowhere. The situation we found ourselves in on the first flight leg of our journey to Uganda.

Because of this. Storms in the area. (The link is to a video of lightning. Alas I was seated over the wing, which blocked the best parts of the lightning. Look for reflections of us in the airplane window.)

As it was an international flight we got there two plus hours early. The plane boarded on time. Left the gate just a bit late.* And then sat on the tarmac for two hours. I was genuinely worried we would miss our connecting flight. Which would really mess things up in Uganda.

We flew over night, landing the morning of the next day. And what would have been a comfortable layover of several hours became a mad dash to get to the connecting flight.

At least the signs in the Brussels airport were honest. And we did make the flight.

We flew across the Atlantic on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which has electronic window shades. Which make for some interesting tones. This is the first signs of sunrise.

And which can be controlled by the flight staff. Which is very annoying when looking out a window that suddenly goes dark.

Fortunately there were user controls as well.

For us, this would turn out to be the most stressful part of the trip, a trip which would be over all too soon.

⛈  ✈️  ⚡️  ✈️  ⛈

* Whether or not a plane leaves on time is measured not when it actually takes off, but when it leaves the gate. So while we left the airport more than two hours later then scheduled, the plane was listed as departing only twenty minutes late.

A Big Bright Spot

On our trip to Utah this past March, I did what I usually do, looked out the airplane window.

And I saw this, a big bright spot.

A big bright spot that traveled along with us, moving across the landscape below. You can see for yourself in this linked video. (Warning, this is just a boring video of a barely visible bright spot moving across the farm fields in the center of the image. Enjoy!)

This is an example of the Opposition Effect. This occurs when looking at the anti-solar point, as the shadows cast by objects in that direction are completely behind those very same objects. And are thus blocked from the viewer. This lack of shadows makes the area appear brighter than its surroundings.

Click here for an explanation of the phenomena (as always for anything optics related, it is from Les Cowley's excellent Atmospheric Optics site).

Here is another video, this one showing a dark spot surrounded by a subtle glow moving across the ground. In this case the plane is lower in altitude so we can see its shadow.

☁️  ☁️  ☁️  ☁️  ☁️

Of course, to observe such phenomena the sky needs to be clear. Earlier in the flight it was cloudy, as shown in the image below. And the Opposition Effect was not visible.

No doubt hidden behind that Glory.