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

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.

Tricker arc in Prague

Very rare Tricker anthelic arc was observed in Prague by Stepanka Kosova. Stepanka seen bright anthelion with "small X". This image is stacking of three photos. It is part of nice halo display with Parry arc and 120 parhelia at October 12 2006.