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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.
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.
You’ve fought hard and you saved and earned,
but all of it’s going to burn.
And your mind, your tiny mind,
you know you’ve really been so blind.
Now’s your time, burn your mind,
You’re falling far too far behind.
Oh no, oh no, oh no, you’re gonna burn!The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Fire
Hans, you are partially right but confused regarding one or two aspects.
Corvidova returned unscathed from the Belize expedition but to this day has steadfastly refused to talk about it. He is still very active in the field and as many of the long standing forum members will remember, following a long and distinguished academic career, he eventually founded the Sierra Nevada Institute of Petroglyphic Interpretation for which institution he still acts as Director.
However, you are right insofar as there were disappearances during what has become known as the ‘Belize Incident’. Three team members (two male and one female) and one Yucatec guide disappeared after having entered one of the partially buried pyramid burial chambers at the precise moment of the Winter solstice. They entered, but never re-emerged. No bodies were ever found, that much is public knowledge. There was an extremely thorough government investigation at the time which concluded that it could not offer any rational explanation for their disappearance and the local coroner declared them to be “missing, presumed dead”. What isn’t widely known is that a 16mm Bolex cine film camera belonging to the missing team members was found inside the deserted burial chamber, still running. About six years ago, a 27 second clip from the reel recovered from this camera appeared briefly on YouTube. It purports to show what really happened to them. The clip remained up for less than two hours before it was pulled by person or persons unknown. Quite possibly one of the earliest examples of the “found footage” genre.
I hope these additional notes are of some help. It is a pity that there are no investigative journalists or Hollywood types reading this; I am quite sure this and other cases from the voluminous files of Dr. Corvidova could be the subject of a blockbuster Emmy winning documentary.
With regard to those damnable chimtrails, I’d rather that we didn’t speak about them if you don’t mind. I was only thinking this morning that we are approaching that time of the year when the spores become most active. We had better not tempt Providence….
Psychotropic lens flare. The effect was first observed by the illustrious Dr. Corvidova during his ground breaking but ultimately ill fated 1971 expedition to the jungles of Belize to investigate the hidden remains of a previously unrecorded Mayan temple complex. As a gesture of goodwill, the local tribesmen invited him to share a pipe containing the dried dung of the sacred Golden Death beetle. As he later noted in the expedition journal, the mind expanding properties of the Beetle had a subtle yet profound effect on the lens geometry and architecture of the Nikon F2 Photomics they were using to document their investigation. Psychotropic lens flare was only one of its notable effects. A single hand written copy of the journal was later deposited at the Smithsonian but because of the nature of the discoveries contained therein and the mysterious circumstances in which the expedition ended, there is an embargo of a 100 years before interested researchers will be able to know the the full, astounding truth.
And another 22. This image was stacked (35 images) to improve signal to noise ratio. There is a faint 46 but this isn’t really visible on this iteration.
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?!
