Description

Our last sky wonder is an icy illusion

This spectacular sky wonder is reserved for our coldest winter nights! When temperatures plunge and conditions are just right, light pillars appear like multi-coloured columns that shine up, not down. It is an ethereal light display, one perfectly captured in this engraved design that incorporates colour and invisible black light technology.

A winter wonder

An unexpected upside to extreme cold weather, light pillars can occur when clouds sit lower in the atmosphere. Within these clouds are millions of hexagonal-plate ice crystals that drift horizontally in the air. And like clusters of tiny mirrors pointing down from different heights, these crystals reflect natural and artificial light from the ground below, and in the same colour emitted by the source.

KEY FEATURES

• Third coin in a wonder-filled series. This is the last coin in our three-part Sky Wonders series, which highlights some of the naturally occurring optical illusions that are a rare display in our skies.
• A UV light-activated effect. The colourful light pillars get a luminous boost from invisible black light technology?in fact, they only appear under UV light.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Selective colour. The partial use of colour keeps the focus on the phenomenon, while the urban landscape is brought to life by fine engraving.
• Look down, not up. The design makes you feel like you are outside looking up at the sky, but the experience is sized to fit in the palm of your hand.
• Different technology every time. Each coin in this series features a different lighting effect.

DID YOU KNOW?

Light pillars may look like they?re just an extension of a light source, but they?re not physically above it. That vertical line is just how our eyes interpret the collective beams of millions of ice crystals, which are located roughly halfway between you and the light source.

The setting sun and the moon can also cause solar or moon pillars. But our illuminated towns and cities are the most common source of light in Canada for this atmospheric optical illusion.

This atmospheric optical illusion typically occurs in the world?s polar regions ? including the Great White North ? but light pillars can also occur further south when an Arctic cold mass moves in, bringing with it bitter-cold temperatures.

DESIGN

The reverse design by Tony Bianco features a nighttime scene on an extremely cold winter night in Canada. Above the engraved city streets, the clear night sky is coloured and enhanced with invisible black light technology, which re-creates the light pillar optical phenomenon when activated by ultraviolet light. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.