Parhelic Circle, Halo and Arcs Over Bloomfield, Ontario
May 03, 2015
Photographer: Malcolm Park
Summary Author: Malcolm Park
Several weeks ago I was outside doing some spring cleaning around my backyard observatory in Bloomfield (Prince Edward County), Ontario when I noticed a beautiful solar halo complex. As shown above, with the aid of a fisheye lens, the solar disk is encircled by a 22 degree halo and flanked by a pair of faint sundogs. The parhelic circle passes through the sundogs and extends nearly across the entire sky. Both the parhelic circle and sundogs have the same altitude as the Sun. Directly above the Sun an upper tangent arc can be seen brushing the 22 degree halo. Moreover, keen eyes can detect the Wegener arc and a paranthelion. Note that the narrow strips stretching over the top of the photo are either contrails or cirrus clouds. Always use caution when looking in the vicinity of the Sun. Photo taken on March 10, 2015.
Photo Details: Camera: NIKON D3S; Lens: 8.0 mm Sigma fisheye; Focal Length: 8mm (35mm equivalent: 8mm); Aperture: ƒ/14.0; Exposure Time: 0.0020 s (1/500); ISO equiv: 200; Software: Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 (Windows).
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