Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Odd radius halos

Some more odd radii, the 18 degree halo is pretty well visible, (look to the left of the pine tree) the 9 degree is harder to detect.

Monday, February 13, 2012

January 25th display

I got a pretty good display on January 25th. It had a great 46 degree halo/supralateral arc. Along with that was a Lowitz and Parry.

Lowitz, sundog, parhelic circle, Parry, UTA, 22 degree, all in one

Parhelic circle, 120degree parhelion

Sundog

UTA and Parry

See the Lowitz?
46 degree/supralateral arc + CZA


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Archive- Odd radius halos

I've seen a few odd radius displays, though none were very spectacular. However, one during April 5th 2011 was good. It was a terrible thunderstorm in the morning and it pouring down rain and lightning was flashing everywhere. I decided not to take my camera, and you know what? It cleared up an around noon there was a 9° halo!! Oh well! But there were still odd radius halos when I was home, just not as good as before.

As you can see, there are very noticeable odd radius
halos

Same, but unsharp masked. The 9° and 18° halos are noticeable.

Odd radius halo displays usually have broad 22° halos, this is because of the combined 20,22,23, and 24 degree halos. The odd radius halos are usually very faint as well. A convex mirror is almost a must. To show how faint they can be, here are pictures from a display on June 1st 2011. Notice the 18° halo to the right of the street lamp.

I would not have seen this without a convex mirror!

Same but USM, possible 9° halo and 18° halo.

The first odd radius halo I saw was a  23 degree plate arc I observed in September 2010. It was quite faint and I was new to halos, so I didn't know if it was a Parry arc or a 23 degree plate arc. However, at the sun elevation at the time, the Parry arc would be touching the 22 degree halo, but this arc wasn't. It was about a degree away, making it 23 degrees from the sun.

Odd radius halos actually might not be rare. What is rare is for them to be strong enough to actually see. Pyramidal crystals are not rare, but they just do not occur in enough quantity very often. Sometimes there could be odd radius halos, that you can only see after stacking and unsharp masking images.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

22 degree halo.

Almost seems like there is odd radius halos, but when
I edit the image I don't see anything.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Sundog

I saw a brilliant sundog as the sun set, only around 5° above the horizon. It was bright, colorful, just plain beautiful! But I didn't have my camera!! However, one thing about it, was that it was only in the contrails, not the natural cirrus clouds, in which is was nearly absent. Conditions must have been good for sundog making contrails.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Supralateral arc!

I captured a mini display with a sundog, CZA, 22° halo, UTA, and a supralateral arc. Later I also got a nice 22° halo. Last night I also got a lower moon pillar, but didn't get a picture.

See the arc in the center?


Saturday, December 31, 2011

Fogbow

I observed a fogbow this morning. A fogbow is essentially a rainbow, but the drops of water are so small diffraction robs it of color. The camera did not do it justice, the bow was an obvious white arc in the sky. Unsharp masking helps to make it visible. Note the dark edge inside it, this is part of a supernumerary.

Fogbow

Enhanced image