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Richard Walker

Sun Dog

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Sun Dogs are caused by the light from the Sun being refracted by ice crystals. My brother snapped this one a couple of days ago, on the 21st of June.


They appear 22 degrees horizontally from the Sun and if you are lucky one on each side of the Sun, depending where the ice crystals are, although it's commoner to only see one.

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Richard Walker

Another Sun Dog

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Here's a 'Sun Dog'  I snapped tonight. I've posted about these before, because they fascinate me.



You can see the real sun is just off to the left.

Sun Dogs are sunlight refracted through ice crystals acting as miniature prisms.

Not a great photo (smartphone only) but hope you get a hint of the spectral colors, and also see the start of a big ring around the sun, which is hardly ever seen completely.

The photo does at least show why these are often called 'false suns'.

I'm planning to get a real camera.


Permalink 3 comments (latest comment by Simon Reed, Wednesday, 7 Oct 2015, 08:55)
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