Whilst down at the last uDSC at Rother Valley, a few of us witnessed some sundogs, and some other strange atmospheric phenomenon, which I believe Mark and Mike took some photos.
Did anyone find out the cause, (don't say the Sun) and if there are any photos, can you post them on here...........please.
Tony G
Sun dogs are caused by atmospheric Ice.
The ice crystals act like prisims, and because they are more then 22 deg above the horizon you get
complete circles in the sky.
The other phenomenon's are probably caused by the weird french stuff.
Mac.
Mac,
I'm aware of how sundogs are produced, but on this particular day we had a halo around the sun (and a bloody big halo it was) but there was a second halo which was not centred around the sun, and it seemed where these intersected, is where the sundogs seemed to be.
Very Weird, but if someone posts the images, you will understand what I am trying to describe.
Tony G
Just a gues, but might it be some sort of second order effect, a bit like a secondary rainbow?
I believe that a halo around the Sun has the same cause as a sundog, and is usually a foreteller of rain to come. I have seen a second halo joined at the edge of the primary halo ... I think that it is a reflection or summat ... but I am old and I could be wrong.
I await further correcting comments from those who know.
Doug.
As no-one has posted the said images yet, was it something like this Tony?
(http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0604/sunhalobirds_wilson.jpg)
Yes I took photos of it - but I couldn't fit the whole thing in a single frame. Also, stupidly, I accidentally deleted them.
Julian, I think, took an image of it - he had a wide enough lens to get the whole phenonenon in one frame. It consisted of the usual sundog/halo going around the sun. There was a second, similar, larger halo that was NOT centred on the sun - it was not centred on anything obvious. The second halo actually intersected the first.
[Later Edit] I think an example of what we saw is described on this page: http://aoptics.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html (http://aoptics.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html)
(http://www.mkruselphoto.com/blog/IMG_5976-6060HDR_16stack-ss.jpg)
Mark
Mark,
That is something like what we saw.
I was in the process of answering back to Carole with what we had seen when you posted.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4713572323_c28426cf9c_b.jpg)
Please bear in mind that this is NOT an actually photo, but only my impression of what I saw. :o
Tony G
PS........................I had only 1 bottle of beer, at the time this phenomenon happened.
You're quite an artist Tony!
Yeah!
P155 Artist ;)
Tony G
This was my sundog image. Strange the way the sun is surrounded by straight lines 8)
(http://ancientlight.amateur-astronomy.org/images/Sundogs_IMG_3115.jpg)