Comments on: Look! Up in the sky! It’s…it’s… it’s an amazing optics display

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:03:03 +0000

Truly, it is the Expendables of optics.

By: agenoria

agenoria — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:45:52 +0000

When there’s thin cloud I look out for halos etc. but I’ve never seen so many arcs and halos at one time. I find them very difficult to photograph.

With the Wars of the Roses, it’s often difficult to get accurate information, but it seems likely that very bright sun dogs seen at the battle of Mortimer’s Cross in 1461 were the reason Edward IV had the sun as part of his personal badge.

http://www.decodedscience.com/the-mortimers-cross-parhelion-how-a-meteorological-phenomenon-changed-english-history/3437

This article says that in Henry VI Part 3, Shakespeare mentions “three suns”.

Recently, in my local county record office I found a mention of sun dogs, “mock suns”, in a farmer’s notebook, dated August 29 1774.

By: W Sanders

W Sanders — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:28:28 +0000

I live in California so it never gets cold enough for all these fun arcs to form. Oh wait …

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 03:35:31 +0000

Wow. That is just a jaw droppingly superluminous photograph!

(Has to be one of the best images of 2012 surely! )

Amazing what ice crystals in our sky can produce. Cheers BA. 8)

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 23:36:37 +0000

I can’t for the life of me see a halo matching the description of a Parry infralateral in the picture. But I do see an arc-shaped brighter area on the right side of the superlateral, but I think it matches item 21a, Upper Tape Arc, in this site you linked: http://vjac.free.fr/skyshows/icehalos/icehalos.html . Are we looking at different things, or is that one misidentified?

By: Vincent

Vincent — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 22:32:57 +0000

That was an great picture.
And the best part: even if it’s in the sky, it’s part of our own amazing planet.

By: Jagosaurus

Jagosaurus — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 21:29:51 +0000

I also ran outside to take photos of this, although my view was partially obstructed. This is one of many:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brazillasaurus/8139711960/in/photostream

I’ve never seen this many effects at one time, although I have seen several halos and sundogs over the years.

Thanks for writing this up.

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:47:48 +0000

I can’t see the pictures in the “Joe made a diagram” link. Without that, I suspect that the “very faint white vertical oval” is actually a vesica, but if it is in fact an overlap of two circles, I can’t figure out why their centers are located where they are.

So “heliocanesenate” is from “helio” for “sun” and “canes” for “dogs”, right? You’re mixing your Greek and Latin, Phil. It should be “heliocynenate”. (Because nitpicking a nonce word is important.!)

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:34:54 +0000

I saw the Boston area one and I was astounded. It was by far the most complex one I’ve ever seen. I pulled my housemate out of his apartment to look and he’s still mad at me. I didn’t say to look directly into the sun…duh….

By: Sergy

Sergy — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:17:49 +0000

Newer seen this in real life. I am living in Ukraine.

Your post reminds me time when I was 16 and reading Jack London. I was particularly impressed by “The Sun-Dog Trail” short story: “The northern lights flame in the sky, and the sun-dogs dance, and the air is filled with frost-dust…”, “On either side the sun are sun-dogs, so that there are three suns in the sky. The frost-dust is like the dust of diamonds, and all the air is filled with it…”

I didn’t know what sun-dogs means back than. I was reading book in Russian, and “sun-dogs” was translated literally as “fake suns”. I thought that it was some kind of reflection from the snow.