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Sunbeam

|< < Prev #3253 (June 1, 2026)

Title text: While weather control is typically thought of as a superpower, the unconscious ability of astronomers and astrophotographers to summon clouds is more properly classified as a curse.

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Explanation

Astrophotography is the act of taking pictures of very distant objects. Common subjects of astrophotography include celestial bodies like planets and moons of the solar system, faraway galaxies, nebulae, spacecraft, or even empty patches of the sky.

In order to take such photos, one needs to know where these objects are in the sky. One major problem faced by Earth-based astrophotographers (most of them) is the fact that the Earth rotates. As the Earth rotates, it creates the illusion that the celestial objects being photographed are rotating through the night sky. Therefore, in order to get clear pictures of their subjects, astrophotographers must develop a strong understanding of how objects like a galaxy or the sun move through the sky, so that their cameras can compensate for this rotation and produce clear pictures.

This understanding of how objects move through the sky due to the Earth's rotation is the minor superpower referred to in the comic. As the sun is an example of an object in the sky, the intuition of astrophotographers allows them to predict where the sun will be in the future, and by extension, where the light flooding in through the window will be in the future. With this knowledge, Cueball, who assumingly has this minor superpower, can advise his friends to sit at the far table to avoid the light from the window hitting them. Though normally extra light may be considered desirable, such direct sunlight in this case would probably be considered problematic as there may be excessive heat and/or light. By contrast, the table currently beyond the beams of sunlight would be a perfectly acceptable place to sit and would remain so.

This comic takes place north of the Sun's current ground-track (i.e. the line through the tropics which experience the Sun being directly overhead on any given day of the year, which changes over the course of the year due to the axial tilt of the Earth). In both hemispheres, the Sun can be found rising in the east in the morning, at its highest at around midday (exactly at true local midday, but must be adjusted for timezone issues such as the offset from the nominal local datum and DST effects), then setting in the west in the evening. (At least until you get close enough to the poles to experience no, or barely any, day or night according to the time of year.) Therefore, typically in the subtropical and temperate latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, a shadow (and, by being framed by shadows, the light flooding in through windows) moves in a clockwise direction, from westerly, then north, then easterly. Similarly, shadows in the Southern Hemisphere move counter-clockwise, from a western direction, via south, eventually towards east. The light from the window in the comic is predicted to move from the center to the left, a clockwise rotation, consistent with the comic being set in the Northern Hemisphere, especially as this comic has been released almost in the middle of the time of the year where this scenario happens only to places north of the equator.

(The declinated angle of the Sun through the window is hard to measure, and without even knowing the time of day we cannot hope to further narrow down the true latitude of the location and which direction the window faces. Although it is typical that, in temperate northern latitudes, major windows like the one shown are set to face as close to south as the orientation of buildings/rooms allow, to make the best use of daylight — particularly in the winter months. It is also a not unreasonable assumption that this meeting (or perhaps a meal) is occuring not long before/after noon, or even during it, with the Sun then approaching its zenith. Overall, it would be possible to see something very like this scene play out for Randall in his current home location, of around 42°N, at this time of year.)

The title text talks about another minor "superpower", that astrophotographers have, which makes clouds always seem to show up in front of the night sky. Because this "ability" is actually just coincidence,^{[citation needed]} that only appears causal to some, as well as that it interferes with their work, by ruining their photos, the title text more accurately classifies it as a curse, which is why the rest of the comic describes astrophotographers having only one "actual" superpower. Of course though, if it was a concious ability it would be more helpful, and could do a similar effect to that in the comic, by moving clouds in front of the sun to put you in shade.

Transcript

[Cueball, Megan, and White Hat are in a large dark room, presumably a restaurant, with two tables and a large window, with 4 panels and a topsection. The window is casting a large sunbeam between the two tables.]

Cueball: Let's take the far table.

Cueball: The closer one will be in the sun soon.

[Caption below the panel:]

Astrophotography gives you exactly one extremely minor superpower.

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