I saw a Parhelia today!!!!

[MadScot]

Thanks to some inside information, I was able to see Parhelia today. I wasnt expecting to see one so soon, but we must take every opportunity presented . It was a lot bigger that I expected, an no, it did not have a fan! The image was a little blurry and rather washed out, but was quite bright. Overall, I was quite impressed. Where did I manage to see one? It turns out, it was in the sky all along! Yes, today was the first time I ever saw "Sun Dogs" or Parhelia. Thanks to some unusual cirrus clouds, with their ice crystals, there was a large bright spot in the sky. I was quite impressed.

More on Parhelia: http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm

It is a really great site with great depth.

Hope to see the other Parhelia soon, too!

MadScot

[[GDI]Raptor]

I thought you ment something else....

[knirfie]

me too, i already didn't like it when he said, blurry and washed out

[Jazzz]

Re: I saw a Parhelia today!!!!

Originally posted by MadScot
The image was a little blurry and rather washed out, but was quite bright.
MadScot

lol i was thinking WTF when you said it was blurry, hehe thats a good one you had me fooled

[MadScot]

Yeah, it was pretty trippy looking at this big blob in the sky thinking "man, some murcers gonna FREAK if I tell 'em!"

I did think it was cool to see the phenomenon behind the coolest gfx chip name. Look mum, I gotta buy it cuz it teaches science!

MadScot

[MadScot]

Of course, kruzin's thread is beating this one by a big margin!

MadScot

[xortam]

Where'd you see this MadScot? Its been too hot on the Peninsula this week for ice crystals

[EecheE]

son-of-a...

Bah! Next time I read entire post before believing it. ;-)

[MadScot]

Originally posted by xortam
Where'd you see this MadScot? Its been too hot on the Peninsula this week for ice crystals

xortam: Monday and Tuesday, although warm and muggy, had high altitude cirrus clouds. This produced the common 22-deg halo around the sun. On Tuesday afternoon, I went out to see if I could see the parhelia. Just in my back yard, with the sun at about 45-deg in the sky, I shaded my eyes from the sun, and saw in the blurred blue-grey smear of the clouds that spread across the sky a bright triangular smudge of light. Althoug it was in the upper 70s, the high altitude cloudes provided the necessary ice crystals.

MadScot

[Helevitia]

This produced the common 22-deg halo around the sun.

So that's what I saw the other day. Didn't know it was so common. I saw the halo on Sunday I believe and Monday I checked again and it was gone. What causes this?

Dave

[xortam]

Originally posted by Helevitia
... What causes this?

Must mean we're getting our new P cards.

MadScot, I guess I'll have to get out of my dark office and check outside more often. I'm surprised the climate was right for the effect. It sure has been a scorcher yesterday and especially today.

[MadScot]

Well, we have been under the influence of a hurricane 1500 miles away in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico. Because of it, the weather pattern has been different this week. We'll be back to normal May weather soon. Oh, wait. June is when we have the hottest weather. Doh!

It is true that we dont often get cirrus clouds here, but in many areas of europe you get them over 100 days a year. Whenever you see clouds like this:

look for the halo. If the sun is not near the top of the sky (morning or later afternoon) look for parhelia in the wisps of cirrus clouds.

MadScot