Halo Complex 15th October 2007

After over 90 days of above 90 degree temps and no halos this half-way decent display shows itsself in high clouds. Upon leaving work, I got quite a few photos. In all I got 22d halo, parhelia, upper tangent arc, bits of parhelic circle, infralateral arcs, 120d parhelia, and an upper suncave parry arc. While on the road I observed a rather bright 120d parhelion on the left side. As the patch of cloud shifted to the north the blue spot appeared and got several photos of it. When enhanced, the bluespot shows green, blue and purple and possible red but can't be sure. The one photo showing the Parry has ugly power lines but could not help that because I was shooting out the car window. If you wondering if I was driving at the time I wasn't because one should not drive and take photos at the same time. During those halo free days the temps were breaking records even in October and it was nice to see halos again.

Concave & convex Parry arcs photographed in Georgia

A visitor of my homepage emiled me this photo of a complex display that took place in Rome, Georgia and the year I can't remember but it was in the early 90's and of all the halos the bright upper concave and convex parry arcs are the most interesting. This is probably the best I have seen where both upper parry arcs are visible . Other images show a bright supralateral arc as well. The person who sent the photo is Loren Hall and his email is: bctimebandit@earthlink.com

Concave and convex Parry arc in Germany

When Stefan Danner was driving home in the evening of September 12th, he saw a pair of very beautiful sundogs. After having reached home, he noticed that there were two more halos – a very rare combination of a concave and a convex Parry arc. He could watch the two arcs getting brighter and brighter by the time. The impressive phenomenon lasted about 10 minutes before it ended showing a bright sundog.

Later, when he looked at the “raw pictures” closely, disenchantment followed: there was not a lot to see for the eyes of a layman. Only after having processed the pictures a little more or less, the effect of the halos in the pictures was like he felt it. (He saw them better than visible in the “raw pictures”, but not as intensive as they look after the processing.)

More pictures

Lunar display in France with 9° halo and Lowitz arcs

On the evening of 30 October 2006, I saw this lunar display in the west of France, close to Nantes. The photos were taken between 18h and 21h UT, the moon elevation was between 19 and 24 degrees.

A lot of halos were visible, including 9° halo, upper and lower Lowitz arc and a bright upper suncave Parry arc.

The orange colour of the sky is due to a strong light pollution. The images have been processed to reduce this effect and unsharp mask has been applied to enhance the halos. I got also nice displays the 2 previous days.

More images of the display here: 1, 2, 3.

Rare halos in Czech rep. Oct. 30 and 31

On October 30 in Prague was observed rare halos. Stepanka Kosova had Lowitz arcs and 120 deg. parhelia (title photo). Lukas Shrbeny had nice 120 deg. parhelia too. I observed rare halos in two last days. On October 30 I saw: 9°, 20° halos and Parry suncave arc. On October 31 I seen: Parry suncave arc , upper and lower Lowitz arcs and probably circular Lowitz arc too. M.Popek and R.Manak seen 9° halos in Lunar displays.

Parry sunvex and suncave arcs

On October 28 in Czech Republic I and Lukas Kosarek observed Parry arcs. I saw sunvex arc too (you see title photo) and Lukas take photos of Suncave arc. We saw a nice supralateral arc also.

Parry and Lowitz arcs in Czech rep

On October 20 and 21 I and Roman Manak saw an upper suncave Parry arc. On October 21 I also observed Lowitz arcs too. On photo is nice Parry arc by Roman. My Parry arc and my Lowitz arcs.

Lowitz arc in Prague

Upper part of Upper Lowitz arc was observed yesterday (9.10.) in Prague, Czech by Milan Cerny. Milan seen nice parhelia, upper tangent arc and Parry suncave arc. Red arrow show Lowitz arc. Here is second photo

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]