bright romance

Ice halos captured towards the end of a flight from Bangkok to Singapore. Flying through cirrus layers, a 22 degree halo appeared, joined by sundogs, which turned sharply into Parhelic arcs, vanished just as quickly - but followed by this beauty - a lower tangent arc (column crystals, light passing through the sides), normally hidden below the horizon: The arms of the arc only cross like this when the sun is about 15 degrees above the horizon. It lasted just a few seconds...

...but I was waiting!

sultry sky

spectral growl

false etymologies:  par-helion (sub-sun) or parhe-lion (roar!)

landing day

rain hat

dream eaters

Baku (獏) are Japanese dream eating spirits, traditionally depicted with elephant trunks, tusks and the paws of a tiger, like in these amazing carvings on a tiny shrine in Nikko. I first came across them on a moonlit night, when I took a shortcut back from the corner store to the place where I was staying. It was like stepping into a Miyazaki film - the tall pines outlined against the sky, the silvery stone lions guarding the shrine entrance, the bizarre carvings overhead, and a deep silence broken only by the sound of the wind...

Baku also feature prominently in a rather luscious illustrated tale called The Dream Hunters written by Neil Gaiman, and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, where they appear alongside one of Gaiman's best-loved characters, the Sandman.

In this case, the baku seem curious about what's going on above their heads.

tint the sky

CZA abbrev. Circum-zenithul Arc (n):

ever had atmospheric optics described over the phone?

i'm in the pub - in the back garden...
the sun's really low and there are wispy clouds everywhere...
there's this amazing patch of rainbow...
it's about a hand-span from the sun....
above the sun you have to see this...
it's like an upside down rainbow!

that kind of phonecall just makes my day! good thing i had my camera with me, and a handy rooftop to stand on :)

parhelion bound

sultry motorway

wake up! apocalypse calling!

so the week of ice haloes went on a bit longer with this bonus post by mistake...

sun blushed

the final installment of the week of ice haloes!

hug

The most amazing display of ice haloes I have ever seen. Over the town of Woodstock in Oxfordshire. A 22° halo was visible, topped by a sun gull and parry arc. The sundogs are out of shot here, but were very colourful. The brightest part was the cloud smile (CZA) sitting on top of what looked like a 46° halo, but could also have been a superlateral arc. It was so impressive I was stopping strangers in the street to show them. The may have thought I was a bit mad... They may have been right. It was glorious.

The week of ice haloes concludes tomorrow...

a matter of scale...

Can you pick out the bright point - which I think is a Parry arc - above the 22 halo that had been present for an hour or so (sun-dog locations just out of frame).

(A week of ice haloes continues...)

sei shonagon's wish list

(the week of ice haloes continues...)

sunset dogs

Does anyone else see a sun pillar here as well as the upper edge of the sun dog (parhelion)? The 22 halo had been visible for a while - though faint - but the sundogs were pretty clear in the mixed sky.

(a week of ice haloes continues)

aphrodisiac gig

Have you ever noticed that the sky on the red (out) side of a rainbow is darker than on the blue (inside). When there's a double bow, the strip in between is darker than the rest of the sky - due to all of the misdirected light busy making up the colours and the inner glow. This dark patch is named after its first decsriber, Alexander of Aphrodisias. The top of this 22 degree halo (possibly with a parry gull) is also darker on the red side. I guess this is also Alexander at work...

(A week of ice haloes...)

46 degree blues

returning from the JR in february, the boisterous spring sky put on a show. streaming whips of cirrus tore across the sky in wide swaths, slipping in and out of a bright 22° halo. above it, a 'cloud smile' lit up a fleeting fibrous veil - its blue-green tones iridescing gloriously - only to fade and flicker away in under a minute. its hard to tell if the arc below was a 46° halo or a superlateral arc. the curves kissed at the zenith - but wouldn't you? all the way up there above the sun? wearing such fine clothes?

Oxford & Adis Ababa are almost 46 degrees apart.

(Looks like we're having a week of ice haloes...)

traveller

sun dogs can appear at 22 degrees, from either side of the the sun - when ice crystals in cirrus clouds are at the right angle to refract prismatic sunlight. they are quite exciting. to check for sundogs location on a hazy day, hold your arm straight in front of you. when your thumb covers the sun, there might be a sundog at your little finger

it might be a long time between sightings...

22°