Sundog (parhelium to you) over Thurso

[ywindythesecond]

Around 6.30pm on 31st March 2008, my wife called to me to look at the setting sun and an unusual cloud formation over Thurso. I took my cheap binocular camera which has a fixed 8x magnification and photographed the coloured portion of the sky.
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/7262/scu0019ma9.jpg
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/7262/scu0019ma9.jpg (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/7262/scu0019ma9.jpg)

It is a Sundog, or parhelium, confirmed by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm)
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/dogphots.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog)

[Deemac]

Great image, never seen this sort of cloud/light effect before. Thanks for sharing.

[mccaugm]

Great image, never seen this sort of cloud/light effect before. Thanks for sharing.

Agreed that pic is stunning...it looks almost like a chalk drawing.

[Kenn]

Quite amazing

[North Light]

Wow,
ywindythesecond, well seen by your wife, and well taken by you, off now to look at the links in your post.

[Raven]

Great capture!
I have got one on the 26th of March... I have got a tiny collection of those phenomenas, but the ones with the halo round the sun has to be my favourites :-)

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd169/Scotland-visions/sd.jpg

[North Light]

Raven,

Stunning, I also have one with this phenomenon in, only a small part, had originally put it down to lens flare, although I did think there should have been any!
Something I will keep my eyes open for now.

[Margaret M.]

Great shot, Windy. Although the sky in Caithness is always fascinating, I have not seen anything like that.

[wifie]

Unfortunately I cannot see the image - only a tiny bit appearing for me. I did check the links though - amazing. Even more amazing I saw one coming home in the car travelling south of Perth last month. Had never seen anything like it before - like a tiny piece of a rainbow - but now I know! Thanks!

[wifie]

Got it at last! Amazing pic - good capture!

[ywindythesecond]

Great capture!
I have got one on the 26th of March... I have got a tiny collection of those phenomenas, but the ones with the halo round the sun has to be my favourites :-)

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd169/Scotland-visions/sd.jpg
Smashing picture raven, and you got the whole thing. My photograph is of the small bright bit on the left hand side.

[trinkie]

I have an interesting picture of a Brocken Spectre, taken by my son when he was climbing the other year.... I will endeavour to get it on here.

Trinkie

[dessie]

very unusual photo ..and fantastic..well taken there..ywindythe second:lol:

[Lavenderblue2]

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e322/maggie1947/brocken1.jpg

This is the picture taken by my son some years ago - above Ballachulish.

LB - on behalf of Trinkie.

[Kenn]

Any one know if the moon can generate a similar phenomena? Once saw a night sky with what looked like an inverted rainbow, never seen anything like it before or since.

[astroman]

Any one know if the moon can generate a similar phenomena? Once saw a night sky with what looked like an inverted rainbow, never seen anything like it before or since.

Have a look at this web page - does any of it look familiar? http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/common.htm

These phenomena can be seen with the Sun & Moon. There was a good Moon halo in February that I managed to capture - see http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?t=42079

Hope the above is of help.:)