Sun dog?

[colincurry]

I took this snap this afternoon. I was using 400mm on my pump lens and this would no doubt have been easier to 'identify' taken at longer range. However, I was keen to capture the delicate colours.

I have googled this and wonder if it might be a sun dog?



Colin

[Wild-Woman]

Yes it is a so called Sun Dog. I've witnessed 2 in the sky at once, which was quite something to see.

[ellen h]

I witnessed this once but didnt know it had a name!!
ellen

[colincurry]

Thanks WW

Colin

[Jim Ford]

This is an excellent site that describes all sort of atmospheric optical phenomena, including sundogs/parhelia:

Atmospheric Optics

There's a particularly nice example here:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm

Jim

[thunder]

Yep, a nice sundog. Saw one this morning on the way to Stansted - Garden Carpet could see the second from the other side of the car.

henrya

[KeenTeen17]

nice photo there!

[nytecam]

Nice sundog pic - I saw one to the west of the sun this morning in cirrus which tends to reinforce them. The low sun at this time of year, when folk are around at both sunrise and sunset, makes a sighting more common.

[Hedge Witch]

Yes, it's a lovely photo, and something new for me to look out for

[muddyfeet]

These are often formed when a low sun shines through a layer of cirro-stratus cloud. Sometimes, you see two - one each side of the real sun. A halo can also occur around the real sun in these conditions, and the halo will often pass through both sun-dogs.

Sun dogs are also known as "mock suns" or their meteorological term - "Parhelia"