Assymetrical halo around the sun

[tamara_k]

Assymetrical halo around the sun yesterday, shot from the top of the Bayuyo. I don't quite get how it came about, it is supposed to be circular, no. Maybe clouds on different levels, and some sort of tilt to the cloud layer produced by the wind currents around the mountain? But don't know really

[Kat Nuts]

Thats beautiful, and amazing

Thanks for sharing 

[tamara_k]

Thanks, Kat!

according to "Color and light in nature" book
http://www.amazon.com/Color-Light-Nature-David-Lynch/dp/0521775043/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363444875&sr=1-2&keywords=color+and+light+in+nature

(aside - my goodness, we have some unexpectedly expensive books!)

halos which appear elliptical are not unknown, and are relatively common when the sun is low (they are tangent arcs to the circilar one). However, it was well past 11, sun was high. "True" elliptical halos are very rare apparently and the book doesn't even have a picture.

I am inclined to think that the halo of yesterday was the one of the more common kind, it's just that I can't get through those formulae that explain their nature to confirm or refute my hypothesis

I think that book affected my vocabulary

[Paddster]

You've pulled one out of the hat yet again tamara - fantastic picture and thank you 

[SheilaW]

Beautiful picture, Tamara. I don't remember having seen these things at all before coming here, at least not often. They seem to be quite common here, though not normally so complete or impressive as the one you filmed. But maybe it's just that it's so nice to lie down under the sun here.

[Paddster]

Thanks for that sheila  I felt ok to read ya post till you put the bloody sun bit in......Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......

[tamara_k]

Sheila, yes, seems that partial and complete circular halos around both sun and moon occur fairly frequently here.

But I saw the complete halo for the first time on the Isle of Wight

[simmey]

Hi Tamara, I saw that on Friday aswell, I'm in Lanzarotte, I first noticed it at about 11am but it stayed all day, it looked like a rainbow around the sun, really pretty.

[woe10]

It's caused by the Prism Effect of white light from the sun passing through Ice Crystals in the atmosphere.
A La "Pink Floyd" Album cover of Dark Side Of The Moon. (see below) You can see this a lot in Fuerte.

[fifi]

Fabulous photo once again Tamara.