On October 26 the pupils of the Särkijärvi school near the small northern Finland town of Muonio stopped suddenly their indoor activities and rushed out - somebody had noticed a halo wonder in the sky.
At the school were also excursionists from University of Lapland. Among them, Päivi Linnansaari happened to have a camera handy and took several photos of which a selection is presented here.
The display had all the basic flavourings of a great diamond dust display, including the helic arc, circular Lowitz arc and diffuse anthelic arc - the latter of which is seen faintly in the lower left image. But then there is also a new halo: the 46° contact arcs. Theoretically it has been known for quite a while, but no convincing photographs have come up untill now. The halo shows up in the upper right image as three arcs below the circumzenith arc. Probably a comparison with simulation is needed to get a proper grip of it.
The halo display made it also to local newspaper. Couple of kilometres from the location there is a ski center, so the halos may likely have originated from snow guns.
