There were no high clouds in looking West from the hallways of the Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit yesterday morning. The sunrise, was almost exactly the same as the day before, which isn’t a bad thing unless you’re taking photos and are hoping for variety.

Thankfully, there is this thing called the Earth’s Shadow Band, the shadow of the Earth cast on the atmosphere. It’s the dark portion of the horizon opposite the sunrise or sunset, during the time before sunrise and after sunset. The color above the dark band is known as Belt of Venus.

Sometimes, the shadow band creates the rays you see in this photo. When it does, the shadow band to the West is often more interesting than the sunrise to the East. That was certainly true on this morning. (This panorama, by the way, was stitched together from seven portrait photos. It was the only way I could get the pool and the full effect of the rays in the same photo.)