A spring-starter in Finland

On 25th March a relatively small high-cloud area swept over Southern Finland and produced a fine halo for observers in Helsinki, Espoo, Turku and Riihimaki. In Riihimaki the upper Lowitz arc was continuously in the sky for over three hours. In addition to Lowitz, there were also pyramidal crystal halos (9 halo/column arc?, 24 lower plate arcs, 18 plate arcs), helic arc and Wegener anthelic arc.

The photograph above is taken by Jukka Ruoskanen, and more photographs can be found here. In Helsinki the display was photographed by Marko Riikonen, in Espoo by Panu Lahtinen and Timo Kuhmonen and in Turku by Ismo Luukkonen

First odd radius halos observed 31st January 2007

While at work on break I saw some cirrus clouds gather in the sky and I later saw a halo appear so I got my camera out of the car and my sunglasses. As the minutes passed I notice that there were three halos: 9 degree halo 18 degree halo and possible 23 degree halo. The left side of the 9 degree halo looks strange because it is brighter on one side and has a somewhat vertical look to it.

When I later downloaded the pictures I went through them with adobe photoshop and I applied the USM and I noticed possible 20 degree halo and even a 35 degree halo! You can see at least 4 halos in the enhanced photo. The possible 9 degree column arc and 35 degree halo have been pointed out with black arrows.

9° column arcs in Prague

Today Ondrej Vlach seen nice Lunar display in Prague, Czech. Halo, upper tangent arc and rare 9 column arcs. Ondrej say: "Left side of 9 halo was very bright and I was took some photos at 22:40 UT. I use Registax for photo stacking."

Circumscribed halo and pyramid halos in Sardinia

This display was captured by Jan Drahokoupil in Sardinia on 6. September. The 22° halo is surrounded by elliptical circumscribed halo. The small halo around the sun is 9° halo or 9° column arc (or both together). Simulations could give better clue. Later on the display changed and there were also 18° plate arcs.

More photos here.