Halos And Rainbows Volume I
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Ever seen a twinned rainbow? Some time ago I saw a rainbow that seemed to be a bit snapped. It turned out to be a twinned bow.
Some manipulation shows more
And blowing up a detail shows it even clearer
More about it: Atoptics, twinned rainbow
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When you have particularly good primary and secondary bows, always pay close attention to Alexander’s Dark Band, the area between the two, to see whether there are any traces of the fifth order bow. This will more than likely manifest as a green or green/blue colouration. Try increasing saturation, boosting the levels a touch and applying a little usm. It was first photographed a few years ago by Harald Edens in New Mexico but only a handful of times since then,
http://earthsky.org/earth/first-ever-image-of-5th-order-rainbow
Perhaps you could be one of the privileged few to join the higher order bow club?!
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Ha, nice arcs Keelin and Alec.
@Alec: the 5th order rainbow will be on my list from now one. I checked some older pictures (just two) of a double rainbow with Alexander’s Dark Band and to my disappointment (?) and not to my surprise it did not show up. I had to try, but I think one must be very lucky butto spot the phenomenon.Sometimes the 22 degrees halo does not appear, but only its longhorns.
Upper Tangent Arc
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Hans, that’s a beautiful sunvex UTA. Although an extremely common halo, these gull winged arcs are amongst my favourites.
Very often, what you see is not always what there is possible to see in any given display. Many other halos may be present but remain sub-visual. Can I share with you a very powerful processing technique which is widely used by members of the halo community? It is both powerful and extremely simple to use. The technique is called “blue minus red processing” or more commonly “b-r processing”. It was developed in France by Nicholas Rossetto and perfected by his fellow countryman, Nicholas Lefaudeux who is probably the world’s leading halo expert. Lefaudeux has explained the technique in great detail and far more succinctly than I ever could on his own website opticsaround here,
http://opticsaround.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/le-traitement-bleu-moins-rouge-blue.html
If possible, when photographing halos, always try to shoot in raw format as this will give you the maximum amount of data to play with at the processing stage. At the conversion stage, convert to 16 bit rather than 8 bit as this again will also maximise available data. The following is an example taken from Lefaudeux’s site. As you can see b-r processing has clearly revealed not only the Parry but also the middle or circular Lowitz arc. The helic arc is also present in the colour version but this is knocked out when b-r is applied because it is a predominantly white halo. Other techniques must be used to reveal that particular arc. Image copyright Nicholas Lefaudeux.
So, Hans, you can now see what you may be missing! I hope this is of some use to you and others who may occasionally photograph the odd halo.
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Thank you Alec for the french connection. Merci Bien. J’ai quelque chose d’étudier. It is indeed useful for everyone who tries to capture halos. It turns out that I am not well enough equipped. I use Photoshop Elements or Lightroom. To my surprise they both don’t offer the function of a channel mixer.
I do emphasize the existence of halos when necessary by adding contrast and then pumping up the saturation. Here-under an example of one of the rare occasions I spotted a lot of arcs together.
22 degrees, sundogs, parhelic (parts) ,UTA, Parry, supralateral (I suppose), CZA.-
Hans, there are several free pieces of software that come equipped with a channel mixer, Gimp being probably the most well known.
A rough and ready rule is that the supralateral always touches the cza and the 46 is always separated from it. In your example, though it is difficult to ascertain for sure because of the low resolution display image, I think there might be Lowitz present. There seems to be a lower Lowitz at least on the left hand parhelion.
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Thanks for the help Alec. Nice rule for the supralateral and 46.
Just installed GIMP and this was what I got for the same picture.
I guess I have to exercise a bit with the possibilities of GIMP. The Parry is not that clear at first try. Maybe it is because I only have a JPG version (unfortunately). For the lower Lowitz I think the picture is not good enough to distinguish, but I would be happy if so. I once spotted a well distinguishable upper Lowitz. Just have to be alert when the conditions seem favorable.
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Doing better already and much to my surprise on a picture taken at the same occasion as above, but somewhat later, an upper Lowitz appeared. You were right I now can see what I was missing. I will have to check more of my archive.
An upper Lowitz arc touching the Parry arc and crossing the UTA.
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Hans, your first attempt at b-r wasn’t quite as successful as the second because you performed it on a low resolution image that had already undergone a fair amount of processing and was in all likelihood 8 bit. However, your second attempt is much better, indeed you have managed to capture a real beauty! It’s actually a Middle Lowitz arc and not an Upper Lowitz. Middle Lowitz are also sometimes referred to as circular Lowitz arcs because of their shape. The only other thing I might suggest is try using as wide an angle of lens as you have at your disposal. By zooming in so close you are probably missing a lot of sub-visual halos that might be there. Many of the halo pros use an all sky fisheye lens to capture everything in the sky at once. There can be as much going on in the anthelic region directly opposite the sun than directly around the sun itself.
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You are right about the first attempt, Alec. The cause of it was not the poor quality of the picture, but I subtracted red from green as suggested in the article when working with a JPG. Afterwards I tried it with the normal b-r subtraction what is advised when working with RAW. It turned out to work as well for JPG.
First question: are you sure about the middle Lowitz? How can you distinguish from an upper one?
I had a lot of fun yesterday checking some of my pictures. I once spotted an upper Lowitz in France. Les Cowley published it as an OPOD.
No lower Lowitz to see. On some pictures taken earlier that were less clear in my opinion I found the following:
Also the lower appears! I was flabbergasted.
In close up.
Third and last one:
What strikes me in this third picture is the splitting of two arcs top right of the picture. All what I can think of is the continuation of the UTA in a circumscribed arc (for the lower one) and a continuation of the Parry for the upper one. For what it is worth. Do you have an opinion on this one?
P.S.: Again you were right: I did miss things without this magic of b-r processing. Thanks a lot.
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Hans, I can’t believe I have done this but inadvertently I have been leading you a merry dance. You were right the first time, it was indeed an upper Lowitz. I’ve been in such a mad rush these past few days on the run up to Christmas that my wires have become seriously crossed. I am a dolt and a total imbecile for which my sincere apologies. I could promise that “it won’t happen again”, but considering my past track record it probably will!! The following link will hopefully prove useful in trying to identify the various Lowitz components,
https://www.meteoros.de/themen/halos/haloarten/ee141516/
Earlier this year, there was a flurry of excitement when Jari Luomanen photographed a possible fourth component,
http://www.thehalovault.org/2017/04/lunar-display-with-lowitz-arcs-and.html
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Alec, you are far to harsh on yourself. You already made me very happy and with your tips I found out I was some Lowitz experiences richer than I thought I was. Christmas stress is a serious matter you must not underestimate. Something strong might help, I suggest something liquid 15 years old the least and a bit of Zen?
Anyway I studied meteoros.de and atoptics.co.uk and I am sure about the upper Lowitz and the lower one around the sundog. The middle Lowitz (im Deutsch: der kreisformige Lowitzbogen) seems to be faintly present but maybe I am over-enthousiastic now.
Still I am puzzled about the two splitting arcs top right of my last picture. Regarding your track record (yes, not the one you falsely accuse yourself of), I would be happy with your opinion on it. But please no stress on it. I wouldn’t like to be the cause of a 19th nervous breakdown.
And also thanks for the new link. It is fun reading about the quest for every detail and every observation of rare halos.
Regards from a happy Hans
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Mistakes like this happen when you are in such a mind-warping hurry that you only give something a cursory glance. Elementary mistake, wrapped knuckles and mine’s a pint!
Middle Lowitz definitely present; you had a good haul to bag all three components. The “splitting” of the arcs on the top right is simple to explain. It’s basically just the Parry and UTA diverging. The UTA will eventually extend to join the upwards tending LTA to produce a circumscribed halo.
The next step is to try stacking your images. Mount your camera on a tripod and take a series of images over two or three minutes. Try 20 or 30 to begin with and then stack them with freely available software such as Registax. You’ll be amazed at the additional details this technique will provide when combined with b-r.
https://www.astronomie.be/registax/
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Thanks again Alec for the explanation about the two splitting arcs and for the new tip. Nice homework to do for me to explore stacking. Now I just have to wait for a good occasion.
And yes the former pictures were quite a haul. Almost the whole day a 22 degrees halo was present. Later a UTA came on top of it and then – while the sun lowered – I could see the Parry forming his roof together with the rising of the horns of the UTA. At the end of the show, when the Parry was almost vanished, also a CZA appeared. I think it will take years before I can spot something the like.
From rare to simple. Simple does not mean less beautiful, like you and Keelin showed.
Just an hour ago this simple sundog appeared with a rather broad fluffy parhelic tail.
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Wish I could say, George, but I don’t know much at all about these apparitions — other than it’s been rare for me to catch one. It was late afternoon, and I believe the sun was below what’s shown. The palm tree might be misleading regarding angle, as I was in fact looking slightly up from just straight ahead. In the future, I must take notes! Maybe Alec or Hans can illuminate us?
And Hans, your 22 degrees, sundogs, parhelic (parts) ,UTA, Parry, supralateral, CZA is absolutely stunning! Thank you for launching this new forum thread where we can see and share these gems.
Alec, your simple 22 is so lovely. You shine!
Below is an image from a year ago that made my day. But again, I don’t know what to call it.
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I suppose George asked about the picture Keelin posted at December 15th (reply #248015). It all depends on the height / position relative to the sun. Although that is difficult to see it looks like a 22 degrees halo. A CZA occurs at twice the distance of the 22 degrees halo near the zenith. When the halo occurred on a relative high position like George suggests, it still can’t be a CZA because has to curl upwards. That’s why a CZA is also called the smile in the sky. Keelin wrote that the halo was taken slightly up. That implies a 22 degrees halo.
On the last one you posted Keelin, I can see a faint arc curving upward at the right that is tangent to an upper part of a bow. In fact the same applies to this one as above. It all depends on the relative position to the sun. When it is at 22 degrees from the sun this must be the 22 degrees halo with an upper tangent arc. But when this was observed higher, this could have been a CZA tangent to the supralateral or 46 degrees arc. Do you remember the position Keelin?
Any other opinions on this?
P.S.: It is always fun to explain others, asking what om earth you are looking up for, what there is to see. I think we all had our moments people were surprised after pointing out and explaining. This contributes to the fun as far as I am concerned.
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Thank you, Hans, that makes sense to me about the Dec 15th image being a 22˚ halo. As for the most recent one, I don’t recall at all where the sun was. Can anything be determined by the layered order of colors?
As for sharing our enthusiasm about the wonders of the sky with others, I’ll never forget the following encounter. (I hope it’s okay to post this here.)
Just as the downpour began, I dashed into a local deli. An elderly man who’d been on his way out, stood transfixed in the doorway eyeing the display of darkening clouds, his face lit in childlike glee. We shared a few moments of quiet wonder punctuated with overtones of “Wow!” as thunder rumbled.
“I’m 84”, he began, “grew up on a farm. We used to lie in the fields and see all kinds of things in the clouds! Do people do that anymore?” I smiled and told him about the Cloud Appreciation Society and its tens of thousands of members who feel doing so is a far cry from a waste of time. “You don’t say!” He shook his head in amazement. I drew out my phone to share some photos.
“You’ve still got it!”, I assured him when he quickly spotted the Pig in PJs, a complex Cumulous Rorschach. We both took a breath and then he sighed, “I love that smell, the first rain! I know there’s a word for it…. but I can’t remember what it is…” I leaned in to touch his arm and whisper, “Petrichor!”, like a secret code assuring him we’re on the same side. “That’s it! That’s it! Thank you! And the Cloud Appreciation Society, I won’t forget that!”. He made his way out, into the wet, eyes to the skies, chanting his new mantra lest it slip away like the passing storm.
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That is a story to remember Keelin. This kind of experiences are to be cherished. Heartwarming.
As to the arc I will put my money on a CZA. Not because of the layering of colors, but because of the upcurling circular form it seems to have.
Next one is certainly a part of the 22 degrees halo. I was walking the fields together with some biologists (which I am not) looking for rare plants. I had to explain what they would miss when they only looked down for beauty. We concluded it will be found everywhere you will look for it.
The Complete Proof Of The Curvature Of Spacetime
Or one might see Santa’s sleigh in it. Unfortunately he must have fallen of.
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Thank you, Hans, and the conclusion you and your biologist friends reached could not be more true. Beauty abounds! Sometimes when we’re surprised by it, the body responds in telling ways — breathing shifts, eyebrows rise, a smile forms, and then there’s that stillness in which the ordinary moment becomes “liminal” (defined as that moment when a person has stepped across a psychological threshold out of the ordinary world of existence into a new place where they are open to experience, something undefined).
You have The Complete Proof! And if Santa has indeed fallen, he’ll have had the ride of his life through the clouds. Below, The Curve Crosses The Pond as well.
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Liminal. Sure! After all we must have known the sky smiled at you, Keelin.
Nice to see the curve crossed the pond.
Since the moment Alec gave the forum the push that we are now enjoying so much, I found more colored candidates in my archive and also quite some sundogs to share. Here is one.
Choreography For Ballerina With Fireball
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The ballerina appreciates the audience Keelin!
Once my nephew had a laugh with me about my appreciation of clouds. How silly can one get! But a year later and much to my surprise he started also cloudspotting. What was seeded had taken root with nice cloud-conversations and exchange of pictures as a result.
A few days ago he sent me this halo spectacle from the ski resort where he is now giving ski lessons (great to be young!). Snowcannons had filled the air with diamond dust. You can see the individual snow crystals sparkle in the sunlight. He will like it when I share this one here.
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Hans, that looks like how I feel when I see any type of iridescence in the sky. Just little sighting yesterday had my toes all awiggle.
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Wonderful image Keelin. Colors lost in the blues.
Not wanting to clever about it, but both are sundogs I think. Irisdescence or sundog, the colors of both are always toes awiggling (so to speak).
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An earlier post giving pointers on the difference between iridescence and circumhorizon arc, though it can apply to other cases:
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The neighbourhood is becoming increasingly edgy. In the last twelve months, there have been: two murders; three stabbings; two cannabis farms raided; a visit from the bomb squad in relation to the storage of certain unspecified volatile materials; one illegal dangerous dog breeding enterprise shut down.
And you wonder why the need for barbed wire?
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Absolutely beautiful in black and white, Alec. I do have the impression that the attempts to stop the breeding have been in vain?
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I wish each post had a like button, such a great thread and these photos are stunning. Alec, thanks for the great articles and scientific details about halo phenomenon, so fascinating. I love learning from this community.
Here (near Seattle, WA) we had a nice 22 degree halo around that stunning super moon last night. With a bonus contrail piercing the moon. Better than fireworks!
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I was SO excited to see my second-ever Circumzenithal Arc yesterday. And the sky was already gorgeous.
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I did not notice directly myself Keelin, but yes it must be the Crow.
And yes the eye is not quite in the centre George due to the use of the wide angle.
Very nice way to walk the dogs Keelin. Did you perhaps look for the CZA? The right circumstances seemed to be there, but maybe you did and there wasn’t any?
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Both versions of your sundog are absolutely beautiful, Hans! In this one, the color might be as one might see ~~ if one were especially lucky.
Through The Gossamer Wing Of A Faerie
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Thank you for the warm welcome, George! I am guessing you saw my Gunter Mountain Photography page? I just went out this evening and shot 1889 photos of the sunset but I have not looked through all of them yet! I did use one as the cover photo, though. ;-) I look forward to learning names for all of the clouds, etc that I have been photographing and observing over the last few years!
Blessings
Ramona -
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And yesterday there was another sundog but now in combination with a fallstreak hole. Never witnessed that combination before. It is not a great picture in my opinion. I captured it with the cloudspotter app in a hurry on route and the rather small sundog was not long lived, so there was no time for an attempt to improve the picture.
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Fans Of The Ballerina With Fireball
Rainbow Trout
A Pale 22 Plays Peek-A-Boo
Found This In The Deep Sea
Sun halo and accompanying sun dog, as seen from Alabama, USA on February 2, 1017.
Sunset Sundog
Fetching Light
Halo Dancer
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