Optical Phenomena Vol VII
- This topic has 54 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 19 hours, 2 minutes ago by
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Beautiful illusion, Ruth! I never tire of seeing your moon shots.
Did you catch the Aurora Borealis up there in Montana recently? We had only a hint of it down here in Napa. These backyard photos were taken ~9:30PM. Too much neighborhood light, but still exciting to see even a little glow. iPhone camera caught it better than my unaided eye. I increased the contrast and de-fuzzed the images, but didn’t enhance any colors. Subtle, but oh the ooooh!
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Hans, what an amazing catch! Who’s a good Twindog?! I think a treat is in order there. As for the Northern Lights, they seem to have been stretching further south these past few years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you manage to catch it too.
And Greg, how lucky is that smile? I think it must be the treat you get for looking up at just the right moment!
Swept Away in the Radiance of the Moment
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Have been meaning to show these to more people. As Keelin had mentioned in an earlier post, the aurora has been quite active recently. I can say that I have gotten my fair share of dazzling light shows. And here are a couple of photos from some of the recent storms we’ve had. I’ve got plenty more where they came from, so let me know if you’d like to see more!
Showers of Light
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Hans and Gregory, love the dog and light show. Gregory, I for one would like to see more of your Aurora show. I did try my best to catch the Northern lights in my area, but no cigar. I finally learned you need to look through your smartphone camera on a night mode. Next time I will know.
My Surprise around the corner
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Wow, great bright colors Donatelli, in what you think is a sundog. Love it.
It is not a sundog, but a circumzenithal arc (CZA). The CZA is about 45 degrees above the sun as a part of a circle around the zenith. There is only a small part visible in your image. and it has its blues above. A sundog is always 22 degrees at the left or the right of the sun with the reds facing the sun and the whites at the other end. The colors in between are usually not that bright as in your CZA. Here is an example of two sundogs accompanying the sun as dogs should do: Two faithful sundogs
Here is a sundog in close up to compare. The sun is 22 degrees at the right (out of frame).
Sundog
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Went outside to stretch the legs this afternoon, looked up and this is what I saw:
AzOptics
I hung around for awhile and this is what it developed into..a 22 degree halo, a upper tangent arc, a Perry arc, a circumzenith arc and a faint superlateral arc (it touches the Zeenie) starting in the lower left corner..the shot below caught the south part of the superlateral .the third caught the north section..Maybe its a 46 degree or 44 degree halo?
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Somewhere I read that the only way meteorologists could duplicate a 44 degree halo was by the light being refracted twice by aligned ice crystals. All the pic above and below show lots of contrail at various states of decomposition at various levels..So there is evidence the faint “rainbow” at about the 44 degree mark had the physics to develop
Az Optics
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As soon as I recognized the upper tangent arc time slowed down and I started a methodical take down of what was going on. All the few other upper tangent arcs I’ve seen were rather flat compared to this one so I began looking for a parhelic circle . There was only one sundog (north) and it was brite. Not seeing any makings for a circle something was there that normally isn’t and it came and went in intensity as contrail and cirrus drifted along. I saw the 44(?) before I saw the circumzennie and the Perry arc, which also grew and faded as per the mix of cloud passing thru. Is it possible the mysterious 44 degree halo, in this case was at least 50% parented by man made cloud?
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I almost missed this one too Ruth. I swear, not a few days after President Musk started laying off air traffic controllers, this happened! Yep, we got arcs colliding into each other . Look carefully!! From the bottom up, 22 degree halo, upper tangent arc, Perry Arc, then BAM! the circum Zenith arc gets run over by the 44(?) degree arc..Thank goodness no body got hurt,.
AzOptics
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Okay for some fun (?) below is the first photo I took of the Upper Tangent Arc and friends. Obviously I was trying to include the rainbow arc(44 degree arc?) on the far rite. Please compare the upper tangent as first photographed to the shot above in my previous post which was near the last shot. I photographed for 11 minutes shooting 24 pics. So you can see the changes and see the placements of contrails across or near the upper tangent arc. Okay ,ive read that the 44degree halo is theoretically a sundog of a sundog..the lite has to be double refracted by those hexagonal ice crystals..So the one parent is a sundog and the other is whatever has hexagonal ice crystals aligned the same way. What other occupant of the 22 degree halo is there besides the sundog..the upper tangent arc,,so can a upper tangent arc have its own halo?, its own superlateral arc..or are we locked into a 44 because it sits on the 22?
Azoptics
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It was too windy for a good look at the eclipse last night. Too much dirt in the air. Clear visibility was crap.Still took a peek or two. Tonite a wide Asperitas event took place north of Phoenix with valley wide undulatus coming in from the west..after the sun had set..oh well..but I did get a lunar halo last month, with Mars visiting the twins….the Locust Moon..?
Azoptics
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Sooo…I went outside to stretch my legs a couple of days ago and I looked up and this is what I saw:
and thats what most Upper Tangent arcs Ive seen, have looked like to me…flat. More of the Parhelic Circle below
That was it . About half hour later I went outside, looked up ..and other show..but with a lower tangent arc(?). flat like the Upper and a lot of lens flare..why it isn’t wise to shoot into the sun.:
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