Solar Halo

[LukeSkywatcher]

I know its not exactly astonomical related but on the way home from the shop just now i saw a lovely example of a solar halo. Lots of thin high cloud around and almost setting sun. This halo wasnt the biggest i have seen but it was vivid in colours of red,green. It stretched a good quarter of the way around the sun (6-9pm position).

It didnt last too long. It was gone by the time i got home.

Always nice to see this effect though because its not often you see it. I've only seen it once before anf the halo went the whole way around the sun.

[ashenlight]

Thank you for sharing this with us Paul, it is a beautiful sight - have you ever seen a sun dog? Just as stunning!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Amanda the halo i saw that went the whole way around the sun looked like that but was brighter. Cant say i saw any dogs though. Maybe the one the other evening was showing a dog? It was more red towards the suns surface and green on the outer edge.

[Talitha]

The halos fade quickly sometimes, glad you got to see it.

Here's a pic from my little digital camera a few years ago.. was the color like this?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Carol the 1st one i saw surrounding the sun a couple of yrs ago was like that but i remember it being more vivid to the naked eye. The one i saw the other day was definitely red around the inner edge and green on the outer edge. Really quite striking phenomenon.

[Talitha]

Lucky you! Maybe there were some particles in the air which intensified the color. All of the halos i've seen have been like the one in my photo... has that volcano in Iceland been active lately?

[LukeSkywatcher]

I haven't heard anything about the volcano is a few weeks. I'm pretty sure that a lot of the ash particles that were up there are now reaching ground level though.