Not a cloud?

Not a cloud?

Forums Cloud Identification Help Not a cloud?

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    • #436860
      Annie Luce avatarAnnie Luce
      Participant

      This beautiful thing happened around the sun and stayed with me in Sagaponack Long Island for about an hour.  A rainbow around the sun?16D7FFDC-7F74-429C-AA44-C01FB1D9DC89

    • #436897

      Annie,

      That’s an optical effect known as a 22-degree halo. It’s a ring around the Sun (or Moon) with a reddish inner edge. It is caused by the sunlight shining through hexagonal shaped ice crystals each of which acts like a tiny prism that refracts and reflects the light. It gets its name from the fact that, no matter where it appears in the sky, it always appears the same size –with the angle between the center, the Sun, and the ring of the halo being 22 degrees.

      well spotted!

    • #436921
      Annie Luce avatarAnnie Luce
      Participant

      How fascinating! Thank you so much for your explanation

    • #436923
      Steven strick avatarSteven strick
      Moderator

      looks like the camera was pointed into the eyeball!

    • #437040
      Ruth Quist avatarRuth Quist
      Participant

      Annie, just fantastic colors. Perfect capture.

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