Version 1.0 / updated on 2001DE30
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At one time I made an emblem for the Winds of Dawns and we discussed it on the WoD forum Himitsu asked me this question: "I'm curious as to why the sun is red and pink instead of some other color. Maybe it's just me but I've always seen the sun has a gold or orange color just as my sunstone is. Why did you decide to use the colors you did?"
I then replied in the forum but it is difficult to explain without using some drawings. Here is the answer I gave her on the forum:
"Good question Himi. This was in my publication on Natural Philosophy actually. I will put it up on my scroll to better illustrate this as it is easier to understand with a drawing.
You have certainly seen a rainbow? The reason you see a rainbow is similar to the reason why the sun is red at dawn. You see, the light coming from the sun is made of all the colors of the rainbow. When the right conditions are met for a rainbow, the water drops in the air separate the different colors and you see them spead out (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet). What happens at dawn is the same thing on a bigger scale. As the rays of the sun graze upon the air around the Earth, the air itself spreads out the colors. It so happens that red is bent (?) more than the other colors and 'touches' earth before the others. As the sun comes up, the orange is added to the red as it 'touches' the earth also, then the yellow, etc. So a sun at the horizon is a different color than one in the sky. "
So here are the pictures to help understand that explanation. The first is a representation of the rays coming from the Sun towards Earth. It is easy to see why it is night in half the world and day in the other half. As the Earth rotates (anti-clockwise when the north points out of the scroll) the Sun rises (from the east). On the second drawing, in a different scale, we also see the atmosphere. Because of the atmosphere the Sun rays are separated in the different colors that compose them.
These drawings are obviously not to scale and are not an accurate representation of what happens in fact. They are meant to illustrate the phenomenon only and are good enough for that purpose. The reality is a bit more complex since the density of the air varies with altitude and the refractive index of the air is a function of its density. What that means is that the "rays" do not travel in a straight line within the atmosphere but actually follow a curved path.
