It turns out having a wide angle lens on your phone is really helpful for catching sun halos!
#photo #halo #StopSign #sky #silhouette
Tag: halo
Tangents and chords across a sun halo.
Fragments of a sun halo and a couple of contrails.
Fragments of a sun #halo and a couple of contrails.
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A bright sundog next to a glass-sided building
A bright #sundog next to a glass-sided building. The sun is off to the left out of frame. The sundog had a bit more color and more of the spectrum in it as seen through my polarized sunglasses, so I kind of wish I'd taken a shot through one of the lenses, but at least you can see how bright it was.
I haven't adjusted the color on this image at all – except for cropping, it's straight out of my phone.
A 22° sun halo spotted yesterday.
Bisected Halo. A clear 22-degree halo around the sun…
Bisected Halo. A clear 22-degree halo around the sun, bright enough that I didn't have to adjust the image afterward. This is straight from my phone.
Even cooler: you can actually see the contrail's shadow on the layer of cloud that's producing the halo! The sun is behind the tree, and while the contrail pops out so it *looks* closer than the almost uniform layer, but it's clear that the contrail is higher.
Fragments of a circumhorizon arc
Fragments of a #CircumhorizonArc seen on my way back from lunch today. I took some shots with my phone, because that's what I had, then remembered that I had the good camera with me and grabbed it from the office. The clouds had shifted, but not far enough to destroy the effect completely.
Oh, and saturation has been enhanced on both photos to bring out the colors.
Just realized: autocorrect turned “cirrus clouds” into “citrus clouds” in the image descriptions. Yes, both of them.
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On Flickr: double
Solar halo fragment. It’s high, but it’s also wrapped around the sun in the right spot for a regular 22° halo
Solar# halo fragment. It's high, but it's also wrapped around the sun in the right spot for a regular 22° halo and not one of the less common ones, because it's July and the afternoon sun is high to begin with.
Two views of a 22-degree circular halo around the sun
Two views of a 22-degree circular #halo around the sun that I saw on a walk this afternoon.
Halos are a lot more common than I used to think. Then I started actually looking for them. Even on a warm day like today, there can still be ice crystals higher in the atmosphere of the right size and shape to cause a display like this (or even more complicated ones).
#photos #optics #sky #silhouette
@sohkamyung Thank you!
Usually I just go for a utilitarian, “got a picture of the halo,” but this time I tried about five different things to block the sun, trying to compose an interesting shot as well. I’m going to have to keep that up!
Compass in the Sky
Compass in the sky: a 22° halo around the sun.
Dreariest circumhorizon arc ever
Dreariest circumhorizon arc ever. I could barely see any colors in the cloud at all without my polarized sunglasses, and when I took a photo through them, I *still* had to bump up the saturation.
I’ve seen several of these over the years. The brightest one was 9 years ago:
The longest was just last year:
Sun halo from a few days ago.
Circumzenith arc. Like an upside-down rainbow high above the sun…
Circumzenith arc. Like an upside-down rainbow high above the sun, wrapping around the top of the sky. I think this is the second I’ve seen, but the first was only a fragment.
Taken with my phone through polarized sunglasses. Color and contrast enhanced.
How they form: https://atoptics.co.uk/halo/cza.htm
And another one today!
A circumzenith arc. Like an upside-down rainbow high above the sun, wrapping around the top of the sky. I think this is the second I’ve seen, but the first was only a fragment.
Taken with my phone through polarized sunglasses. Color and contrast enhanced.
It’s been a good month for sun halos. Today I spotted this circumzenith arc looking like an upside-down rainbow high above the sun.
Some recent sun halo displays I’ve seen in the last 2 weeks
Some recent sun #halo displays I’ve seen in the last 2 weeks: An upper tangent arc (my first!), the top edges of a circumscribed and 22° circular halo, and most of a 22° circular halo (with bonus contrail shadow on the cloud layer!)
All shot on my Pixel 2 with levels adjusted.
These are all formed by reflection and refraction of light in ice crystals. (A great reference: https://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/common.htm )
Also, all seen from Los Angeles, which isn’t freezing…at ground level.
This is the first *definite* upper tangent arc I’ve seen.
This is the first *definite* upper tangent arc I’ve seen. It’s touching the much more common (and, in this case, faint) 22 degree halo around the sun.
It was late afternoon, and I’ve enhanced the contrast to bring out the detail. The sky wasn’t that dark!
Double halo in the sky
Double halo in the sky. The 22° halo around the sun is really bright and clear, and not that unusual even in Los Angeles. The circumhorizon arc below it, while faint, is also the longest I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen a couple of fragments before, some really bright.
It’s cool to be able to get pictures of these with my phone. There was a time I’d run to get a camera & hope it wouldn’t fade first.
Saturation enhanced. It’s really hazy!
Spectrum in the sky above the Irvine Spectrum.
Spectrum in the sky above the Irvine Spectrum. The rainbow colors are more ordered than I’d expect in an iridescent cloud, so I looked up ice halos that might produce this effect near vertical just before sunset. It turns out a circumzenithal arc is a perfect match: a rainbow arc near the zenith, brightest when the sun is very low. I’d never seen one before – it’s always cool to spot a new kind of sun halo.
It was around 90°F during the day at ground level, but of course it can be a lot colder in the upper atmosphere.
Saturation increased to show the colors more clearly.
eighteenbelow:kelsonv:Hawthorn tree and halo. (At least I think it’s an Indian Hawthorn. It’s …
Hawthorn tree and halo. (At least I think it’s an Indian Hawthorn. It’s got the same leaves, bark and flowers as the bushes that are all over the place in this area, and Wikipedia says they can be pruned into trees.)
Wow, this is absolutely wonderful.
Thank you!
On TumblrHawthorn tree and halo
Still not sure that’s actually what I saw and not just a straight chunk of cloud.
Possible halo fragment. The bright line across the cloud was very straight and right at the elevation of the sun, where you’d expect to see a parhelic circle. (Autocorrect wanted first “pr helicopter” then “pathetic.”)
Great shot, and this is a really interesting formation. Not sure if I’ve ever seen anything like it before.
Thanks. Still not sure that’s actually what I saw and not just a straight chunk of cloud. Even if it is, it’s only the second time I’ve seen one.
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