Dawn in Three Parts

I was just reading Midmarsh John's latest post Friday morning with his photo of a gorgeous dawn sky holding a crescent moon and I realized that some 7 or so hours after he had taken his picture, I had taken some of the same crescent moon at dawn over here on the other side of the Atlantic.  The sky in John's photo has flaming orange clouds with a slim crescent above.  Be sure to check it out.  The image below is more sedate with rosy fingers reaching for the moon over a dove grey sea and clouds. The rays that converge on the sun like this are called "crepuscular rays".

Part 1.  Slim crescent moon chased high into the sky by the rising sun.

Ten minutes later, the sun was high enough to illuminate the grey clouds.

Part 2.  Coral lining in grey clouds.

I turned to the west and saw that dawn had reached across the heavens with sunrays converging at the spot opposite the sun.  Rays like this are called "anticrepuscular rays".  Here is nice website that talks about sunrays and how to see them best.

Part 3.  Dawn sunrays in the western sky.

I took the last 2 photos above from the sunset balcony, yes the very balcony that has been the site of the 2 most recent projects.  The photo below shows the sunset balcony with the upsidedown roof underneath it and the sunshade above it.

Come on up!

 I am really pleased with how the sunshade turned out.

Sunshade extending from under the eaves out to the rail of the balcony.

Just look at all that nice shade.

Twenty-eight minutes past high noon.  The shade is quite pleasant.

The hot-glue gun worked like a charm to hem the edges of the shade cloth.

I wrapped the cloth under the frame on the south (here) and north ends, and secured it to the frame using eyehooks and carabiners.  The hardware is stainless steel to minimize corrosion in the salt air.

I like how the shade cloth lets some light through, so that it doesn't make the inside of the cabana too dark.

View to the west.

Below is a detail showing the hemmed end with the butterfly clip, carabiner and the eyehook screw.

The carabiners will make it easy to take the cloth down if a storm comes up.  I can reach all 11 carabiners without a stool or ladder.  I really don't want to be standing on a ladder with the wind whipping around!

It took us not quite 3 days from start to finish for the sunshade project.  Amazing how quickly it can go when you have the materials at hand.