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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Created: April 10, 2005
Latest Update: April 10, 2005
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Backup of Photograph shows the sun forming a cross-like shape on a large flag displayed in Arizona.This backup copy is to be used only if the original site on the Web is not accessible. It is meant to preserve the document for teaching purposes, when sometimes the URLS are changed when sites are updated, or sites are eliminated. Please be certain to give credit if you refer to this to the original URL: http://www.snopes.com/photos/patriotic/azflag.asp#photo. Original URL, consulted: April 10, 2005.Star-Spangled Banner
Claim: Photograph shows the sun forming a cross-like shape on a large flag displayed in Arizona.
Status: True.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2002]
AMAZING as well as AWESOME
Take a look at this picture. It's awesome!!! This picture was taken in Yuma, AZ on 9-11-2002. The flag was located at Fry's Shopping Center on the corner of 24th and 4th Avenue. Seller's cranes were holding it up and people were stopping all day taking pictures. The photographer didn't even realize at the time this was taken, what would show up in the picture.
Goes to show: Persons may try to get God out of the government, but He will still shine through.
Origins: The picture displayed above is real, an unmanipulated photograph from an event held in Yuma on 11 September 2002 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the USA. Several local businesses participated in the creation and display of the large flag: SewMasters crafted it, equipment from Sellers Crane Service held it aloft, Fry's Food and Drug allowed the use of their parking lot, and radio station KTTI-FM 95.1 hosted the event.
As for the cross-like light effect, the weave of the flag's fabric acts sort of like a camera's star filter: the spaces between the vertical threads allow vertical strips of light to shine through, and the spaces between the horizontal threads allow horizontal strips of light to shine through. The appearance of a cross-like shape when a strong light source (such as the sun) is on the opposite side of the flag from the viewer is therefore predictable.
Many more photographs of the flag and the people involved in the Yuma event are available for viewing in an on-line photo album.
Last updated: 18 October 2004
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/photos/patriotic/azflag.asp
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by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
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