Photographer: Raqqasah Shruti Chakravarti
Summary Author: Raqqasah Shruti Chakravarti; Jim Foster
The photo above showing a shimmering, iridescent sky was observed above Bangalore, India, just before sunset on October 26, 2013. As the cumulonimbus cloud at bottom began to rapidly grow a golden pileus cloud took shape -- at left. The beautiful iridescent colors were clearly visible for about 10 minutes. In order for iridescence to occur cloud droplets in the vicinity of the Sun must, in general, have similar sizes and be randomly spaced. If the droplets are nearly identical in size the resulting colors may be particularly pure.
Photo details: Panasonic DMC-FZ20 camera; 9.4mm (35mm equivalent: 56mm) focal length; f/4.0 aperture; 0.0050 sec. (1/200) exposure time; ISO equiv 100. The photographer is looking west, toward the setting Sun.
