Sundog

[rogleale]

Sundog

Not too rare a sight but not common either. This is a sundog, more correctly called a parhelion. The sun did not actually rise until about fifteen minutes later.



Roger

[Ian]

Re: Sundog

Fascinating, I was unaware of this phenomenon until now. There is lots of information on Wikipedia:

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog[/ame]

Ian

[rogleale]

Re: Sundog

Hi Ian,
This one is even more interesting to meteorologists than the normal sundog because it appeared in the ice clouds as a perfect image of the sun before the sun could be seen. Normally they are on the same level as the sun.
Roger

[devilgas]

Re: Sundog

i'm by no means an expert on sun dogs, but i was under the impression that they are on the same level as the sun, at an angular spread of about 22 deg (i think this is the same 'measurement' as used for moon halos). it's certainly like no sundog i've ever photographed as they are usually rainbow coloured (due to the light refraction through the ice crystals) rather than a constant colour.

if the 'dog' was directly above the real sun, it may be a sun / solar pillar.

did you get any photos with both the false sun and the true sun present?

[rogleale]

Re: Sundog

Thanks for putting me right on that Dave. I had only rarely seen one of these, have always called them sundogs without checking and of course you are right, it is a sun pillar. I have only seen them very rarely whilst the real sundog is fairly common.
As you can see in the photo, the pillar is formed on the flat base of an ice cloud, and as soon as the upper limb of the real sun showed over the horizon, the pillar disappeared, and anyway, I don't think that my little S95 could cope with a full sun on its sensor!

Roger

[Autumn]

Re: Sundog

Thanks for showing us Roger and Ian and Devilgas for making me look that little bit further.

What a knowledgeable site this it and what a fascinating subject. You learn something new everyday, don't you

[Ian]

Re: Sundog

I remember once, flying from Tokyo (yes, OK, I couldn't resist! ) it was quite early in the morning and the sun was rising as we were taking off. During the ascent the sun's rays were caught in some low cloud under us and they momentarily became golden - it was quite magical.

Ian