High noon sun shining down on top of a tree.

Are These Columns Photoshopped?👉👉

The yellow columns you see in the picture are not photoshopped 😁. They are 100% real and were photographed in Hawaii. The reason these columns appear less real is because they cast no shadows, while everything else around them does. So, what happened?

This is a fascinating phenomenon known as “Lahaina Noon,” where the Sun reaches its zenith, shining directly overhead. Hawaii is the only U.S. state where this phenomenon occurs, happening twice a year. However, it’s not the only place on Earth where you can experience this shadowless spectacle. Because Earth is always rotating, Lahaina Noon can occur over the ocean, in a desert, or at any obscure location, making it hard to observe—or simply going unnoticed because no one captured it on camera.

The point where the Sun shines directly overhead is called the “subsolar point”—a point where the Sun is at the zenith, and sunlight hits the Earth exactly perpendicular to its surface. This is also the closest point to the Sun for any celestial body.

As the Earth rotates, the subsolar point moves westward, completing a circuit around the globe every day. Due to the tilt of Earth’s axis, this point also shifts north and south between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. When the subsolar point is at the Tropic of Capricorn, it’s the December solstice, and when it’s at the Tropic of Cancer, it’s the June solstice. The same applies to the March equinox and the September equinox.

The timing of Lahaina Noon changes from year to year. In Hawaii, it first occurs in May and then again in July, typically between 12:16 and 12:43 pm Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time.

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