Fact Check

Star-Spangled Banner

Did the sun form a cross-like shape on a flag displayed in Arizona?

Published Oct. 9, 2002

Claim:

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.

Click photo to enlarge



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.

Last updated:   29 May 2005


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.