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[Paulie pchris00]

I hate to proclaim myself the Sundog King, but I know of nobody who sees more sundogs or halos than me. This will be my thread for posting them.

Last night before sunset, conditions were perfect for sundogs, and I wasn't let down.












Eventually, though, the Sun sunk too low, and the cloud cover was too thick to refract any sunlight to my eyes, leaving just a pretty sunset.

[Paulie pchris00]

March 31, 2013

Catching up on a few things, and the easiest are some good pics of Sun halos and sundogs. On a cool but partly sunny Ester Sunday at my sister's house, I caught this beauty. Pictures never do these justice. The color is just too subtle.


















And then it was gone...

[Paulie pchris00]

April 3, 2013

The first week of April I was working a side job outdoors. I was pretty busy, but I did notice in the afternoon that conditions were good for sundogs, so I kept an eye out for them. About 3:30 I found a sundog 22 degrees to the north side of the Sun.







Then just before 4 PM I found a sundog to the south of the Sun.







As I was going home I saw a partial Sun halo as I was driving. By the time I got to a red light so I could get a picture of it, it had faded considerably, and was gone soon after.




Look just above the tree near the center.

[Paulie pchris00]

April 5, 2013

Again, working outside on April 5, I saw one of the best Sun halos I've ever seen. This one lasted awhile, and liked having its picture taken.

[Paulie pchris00]

Last Monday I hit the trifecta of solar refraction phenomena, but I see that I have a lot of other refraction events that I haven't posted yet, so I'll do those first.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Navy Pier, Chicago

In April of this year I was supposed to go to a White Sox game with a friend, but the game was postponed until August 9 because it was too cold to play. A few weeks later I started a new job, and was immediately worried that I wouldn't be able to go to the rescheduled game since the start time was moved from 7PM to 1PM as the first game of a day/night double header. I shouldn't have worried. By pure luck, August 9 was the first day I was eligible to request off at the new job (with pay ).

After the game, I went to Navy Pier with my friend Chris and his girlfriend to see the tall ships. While wandering around the pier and checking out the tall ships, I saw a gorgeous circumzenithal arc.






I had to stop and admire it, and of course take pictures. Here was the rarest of solar refraction phenomena, hiding in plain sight high above the crowd, and I was the only one to notice it. I didn't yet know the best conditions for seeing a circumzenithal arc, but I had known they were possible, and had actually been looking for it when I looked up. I pointed it out to my friends, and kept looking up at the CZA, while also getting pictures of the sky conditions and the ships.



















Quite a few coincidences put me at Navy Pier at just the right time to see that CZA, and given that the White Sox had blown a late lead to lose to the Twins, seeing that circumzenithal arc was the highlight of my day.

More soon.

[Paulie pchris00]

Monday, December 9, 2013

Michigan City, Indiana

Solar Refraction Trifecta

I work in an office with no windows, so it's a great relief when I get to look outside. Monday at breaktime, I was going down the back stairway of the building, and saw a sundog north of the Sun. I ran downstairs, and out to the alley to get pictures.






I stood out there in the bitter cold, getting pictures of this mediocre sundog, when I noticed that a 22 degree halo was above the Sun. There was a hint of color to it, even less than the sundog was showing, but it was one of the longest halo arcs around the Sun that I've seen. My hand was freezing; the wind chill had to have been around zero Fahrenheit, but I had to document the refraction phenomena. Then I looked up.











Above me was a circumzenithal arc. A book I recently bought says that a moderately diligent observer can see a few CZAs per year. This was the fourth circumzenithal arc that I've seen this year. Now that I know the conditions they form in, I expect to see even more next year.







I've seen some very colorful sundogs, but on average, the color is fairly weak. I've also seen some vivid color in the 22 degree Sun halos, but mostly the colors in the halos are rather pale. I have yet to see a CZA that has not shown very vivid color at its peak.










Quite honetsly, none of these were spectacular on their own, but I had never seen all three together before.


Too see a circumzenithal arc, like sundogs and halos, you need some high haze or thin clouds with ice crystals to refract the sunlight. For the CZA, however, the Sun needs to be below 35 degrees altitude. As stated in its name, a circumzenithal arc is high in the sky, with an arc that if extended would circle overhead, with the zenith point at its center. CZAs are not very common, but since we're the sort of people who look up, it's worth a look when you see the conditions for one are good.

[Paulie pchris00]

I walked out the door late this morning, and upon seeing cirrus type clouds to the north, immediately looked up. I saw this spectacular circumzenithal arc, and could not get my phone out of my pocket and unlocked fast enough.









It didn't last long, only a few minutes, but it may have had the most vivid colors of any circumzenithal arc I've seen this year.

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