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Shall we play the #contrail game? The idea is to produce a series of consecutive images with an increasing number of contrails. So we start off with one as shown below. The next person posts an image with two. Then another person posts an image with three and so on. Let’s see how far we can take it?!
Contrail Game #1Mistakes 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/
Michael & Hans, beautiful texture and sumptuous tonal palette. Surely the sky must provide the best free show on Earth.
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
I wish I was a space man,
The fastest guy alive.
I’d fly you round the universe,
In Fireball XL-5.
Way out in space together,
Conquerors of the sky,
My heart would be a fireball,
A fireball,
Every time I gazed into your starry eyes.Don Spencer, Fireball XL-5
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.
Contrail Game #1
