The Beginning of Halo Season in Hungary

The halo-season in Hungary has began in a very promising way. There were two particularly noteworthy displays this week. 

The first one was observed by László Henez "Felhőcske" on 16th September near Eger, Hungary. As a born halo-observer, even though he was quite unaware of what he was seeing, he took a picture of not only the sunward halos, but the anthelic side, as well, where about a quarter of the bright white parhelic circle was visible together with a Wegener arc curving downwards towards the anthelic point. The 22° halo and the upper tangent arc were seen in the sky covered with uniform Ci for about half an hour after 8:25 UTC, while the anthelic arcs for only a few minutes. László did not see any 120° parhelia or anthelion. More of László’s photos can be seen here.

In the afternoon of 18th September, an odd radius display appeared with pyramidal 18° and 9° halos besides the 22° one. The photo was taken by "Controll" in Jobbágyi, northern Hungary, but the 18° halo was seen in Budapest by Alex Farkas, too. The display started with a 22° halo and lasted for roughly 40 minutes, until 14:15 UTC. "Controll" reported that she had seen a possible 46° halo as well, but it was at the edge of visiblity. It’s worth having a look at the faint pyramidal crystal parhelia in the picture provided. The full-size photo is also available, together with a panorama image of the display.

Anthelic arcs in Finland

On August 28th anthelic arcs appeared in the northern part of Finland. My coffee break was suddenly halted as watching from the window I noticed several arcs. Once outside my eye was first caught by well developed parhelic circle. Then, looking up I noticed a colourful Wegener arc. Colours were red on the bottom and blue on the upper part. In the later stage of the display I noticed faint X at the anthelion indicative of the diffuse/Tricker arcs. I had no camera but my friend borrowed his camera equipped cellphone. Image quality is quite poor, but halos are still recognizable. Also Parry arc and 120 parhelia were present. Other halos were 22halo, parhelia, 22 upper tangent arc, parhelic circle, circumzenith arc, infralateral arc and supralateral arc. The display was noticed over large areas in Finland. More photos is here. Also see the photos by Arto Oksanen and Panu Lahtinen

46° halo in Czech Republic

The April 21st 2007 was undoubtely one of the best halo days in this year. Observers from all over the Czech Republic enjoyed very bright 22° halo with tangent arcs and infralateral arcs.

We probably observed Wegener arcs and 120° parhelia, but this cannot be proven, because even fotos from Registax didn’t help us to clearly identify them. Anyway, Martin Popek saw that day very nice 46° halo and he took these pictures which were stacked from 40 images in Registax.

As the Sun was setting down, more halos appeared. In the second picture you can see parhelion with a part of parhelic circle (parhelic tail), 22° halo, circumzenithal arc and probably supralateral arc.

Edit: It isn’t supralateral arc in the second photo, but 46° halo because there is no upper tangent arc. That signifies absence of horizontal oriented columns, which are necessary in order to make supralateral arc.

Wegener arc on webcam

On Mar/3/2007 I captured a halo display with a remote webcam in Oklahoma/USA. The camera image shows a bright parhelic circle, 120° parhelion and a rare Wegener arc forming a cross on the parhelic circle. A time lapse movie is available here: 

http://www.parhelia.de/storm/2007/flash/wegener.html (Flash)

Diamond dust from Himos snow guns

Mika Aho was also on the halo move on Saturday 4. November. He headed for the Himos ski centre, where some 30 snow guns were operational. The trip was worthwhile. From skiing flanks spread an ice crystal cloud that, even though a bit unclean in appearance, presented some of the rarest halos.

These rare halos are best shown in the photo on the left where several white arcs are seen crossing the sky. Wegener, helic, subhelic, subanthelic and Tricker arcs are all present. Outside Antarctica subanthelic arc has been observed reliably only twice before, both times in Finland. Now Aho's photos add the third observation.

More of the display is to be found here. Like Oksanen, also Aho got halos in moonlight the following night. These photos are under the same link.

Diamond dust from Riihivuori snow guns

Towards the last weekend tension was rising among Finnish halo observers. It was going to be clear skies with sinking temperatures and full moon. Most of the ski centers had their snow guns running, so anticipation for diamond dust was high.

On Saturday, 4 November, Arto Oksanen drove to check the sitation at Riihivuori ski center. There was indeed a column crystal dominated display with upper sunvex Parry, as shown in the photo on the left.

Next night Arto did not have to go anywhere, since wind carried the ice clouds straight to his doorsteps, to Muurame town. It was Parry-time again, and now in addition to normal upper suncave there was also the much less commonly seen lower sunvex Parry (photo on the right). Untill the last winter the latter has been considered as an extreme rarity, but now reports have increased, thanks mainly to ski centers' snow guns and active observers around them. The display contained also other halos of interest, like Wegener anthelic arc and anthelion. See also Juha Oksa photos from Muurame the same night.

Wegener arcs in Czechoslovakia again

Today (9:00 - 11:30 UT) was next nice day. Sky in Holesov showed clear and coloured Wegener arc and other arcs (common halos and upper Parry suncave arc, lower Lowitz arc and infralateral arc).

Display was photographed also by others. Here are the photos by Martin Jankovic from Brno.

[text: Patrik Trncak]