Fogbow

I observed a fogbow this morning. A fogbow is essentially a rainbow, but the drops of water are so small diffraction robs it of color. The camera did not do it justice, the bow was an obvious white arc in the sky. Unsharp masking helps to make it visible. Note the dark edge inside it, this is part of a supernumerary.

Fogbow

Enhanced image



Christmas CZA

I got treated with a beautiful CZA on Christmas.

CZA behind some altocumulus

46° halo

The 46° is a large, rare halo. It is typically very faint and easily missed, and the 22° halo might not even be bright. It should always be searched for though, very carefully too. The image had to be heavily unsharp masked for it to be seen easily.

Faint 46° halo

Original image

Large scale diffraction

While viewing a lake, there was a fallen tree in it and waves heading perpendicular to it. It left a pattern behind it which looked like light diffraction, which is the cause of iridescence and coronae. Diffraction is when waves bend around an obstacle and interfere with other light waves, some cancel each other out and others amplify each other.

Water waves bending around a log

Simulated corona by shining a laser through a small

pinhole

120 degree parhelion & Parhelic circle

I got to see a 120 degree parhelion today. It was the only halo in the sky at the moment, so you should always look all around the sky! Later I saw a parhelic circle segment. There was a mixture of natural cirri and contrails, a sundog showed up in the contrails, but it was not a good one. Contrails just never seem to have those good orientations!

120 degree parhelion

Faint parhelic circle, its in the middle of the image.

Update: Later in the evening there was a faint circumzenith arc and a bright sundog. The sundog was hard to photograph, a lot of trees around here!

 

Another sundog

I observed another sundog this afternoon. It was very faint, so the picture is edited quite a bit.

Sundog

Saw a sundog and 22 degree halo this evening.