Sunday, September 5, 2010

damn, I like this picture so I'll show it again (with an explanation)

I've had some questions about the photograph, folks asking if it was my lens that put the ring around the sun. No, that is light refracting off of ice crystals up in the atmosphere (a cool front had moved into the area two days before). I could clearly see the ring, sometimes full sometimes partial, for about 45 minutes during the sail. Here is a description of the halo from wikipedia....

A halo; also known as a nimbus, icebow or Gloriole) is an optical phenomenonproduced by ice crystals creating colored or white arcs and spots in the sky. Many are near the sun or moon but others are elsewhere and even in the opposite part of the sky

I was just happy to catch of photograph of it with my little point and shoot camera.



Anonymous said...

Yes it is a very good pix. Is that your lens or filter causing the rainbow effect?

Steve said...

No, that is not the lens, it is the sunlight refracting through ice crystals up in the sky. It was clearly visible for about 45 minutes. I thought it looked cool. I'll add an explanation to the post.