Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tuesday Night Parhelion..aka Sun Dog

A sun dog or sundog, scientific name parhelion (plural parhelia) from Greek παρήλιον (parēlion), meaning "beside the sun"; from παρά (para), meaning "beside", and ἥλιος (helios), meaning "sun", also called a mock sun or a phantom sun, is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.
Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low.

I just caught this about 5 minutes ago the sun is to the right behind the tree:




 
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4 comments:

  1. Phyllis (N/W Jersey)October 23, 2012 at 6:30 PM

    Cool! I've only seen it once before in the winter. Glad you took some pics and shared!

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  2. AnonymousOctober 23, 2012 at 8:28 PM

    Awesome pics :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 23, 2012 at 11:18 PM

    My Dad use to point his arm at the gap between the sun and the "dog". He would guestimate when the next rain would arrive by counting the fingers between the sun and the "dog". He said the "dog" was created by the rain that was getting stored in the clouds. The rain would reflect the light of the sun and create a rainbow.
    Looks like you might get rain in about 5-6 days.

    Steve

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  4. c w swansonOctober 24, 2012 at 12:07 AM

    I was just pointing out a sundog to the sixteen year old the other day. He thought I was making the whole deal up. Sundogs? Really Dad?

    ReplyDelete

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