Sewanee Arcs and Circles

July 20, 2008

072008

Provided and Copyright by: Alex Langoussis
Summary Author: Alex Langoussis

My daughter spotted this classic 22 degree halo through the car window one winter's morning, so we pulled over to enjoy the view. The photo was taken near Sewanee, Tennessee at approximately 7:35 a.m. In addition to the solar halo, a sun dog, and the upper tangent arc are visible. Also visible but beyond the field of view of the camera lens, was the right-side sun dog, a portion of the 46 degree halo, and a circumzenithal arc. When ice crystals in cirrus clouds are both randomly oriented and vertically oriented and other crystals are spinning, halo displays, such as shown above, may be observed. Note how the wires at right seem to converge toward the Sun while the arcs and halo surround it.

Photo Details: Canon EOS 40D camera, 28-135 mm lens, at 28 mm, ISO 400, F18, 1/800 second exposure.