I am no weather scientist; I wish I was as it may come in very handy in the field of photography. I was shooting a seascape once and saw a bright light (sword like) going into the air starting at the horizon. This happened just after sunset. I had a scientist / encyclopedia type guy with me who explained the phenomenon scientifically. On another occasion I was above a cloud bank (on a mountain) when the sun set beneath the clouds. The moment the sun disappeared I saw a green flash for just a second or so. I know that there is a scientific explanation for that one too. Then I saw this in Namibia:

This image was taken from the same general location as last weeks image (rainbow blog). You can see the banding start to form in last week's image. The sun came out as the clouds moved and bathed everything in this bright orange / yellow light. What I cannot explain is the special streaks in the sky. The sun was behind me to my left.

          I cannot remember if my polarizing filter helped make the phenomenon more visible or not. This is the kind of image that makes people say; "That was PhotoShopped." These images are different and rare. To maximize your chances of getting such images it may be helpful to understand what causes them so that you can be out there when causal factors are present.

          People often use neutral density filters to get slow shutter speeds. If the clouds are moving they may cause streaks like this. However, I was not using a neutral density filter here.

          My take away here is what I always say - you have to be out there to get the shot when it happens. You cannot expect to get great images if you hardy ever go out to photograph.