Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Day 51 POTD: Sundogs-They mean only one thing: COLD!!!!!


The bright light to the far right of the tower IS the sun, but the rainbow -like light to the immediate right is a sundog.

These two photos are with different white balance settings to try and capture more of the colorful streaks in the sundogs.


Sundogs typically appear when the sun is low, at sunrise and sunset, (although these photos were taken at 9am or noon) and the atmosphere is filled with ice crystals, diamond dust, or ice fog. They are often bright white patches of light, almost looking like the sun, but often have rainbows of colors, and are shaped like halos around the sun. White sundogs are caused by light reflected off of atmospheric ice crystals, while colored sundogs are caused by light refracted through them. Both the angle of the sun rays and the orientation of the crystals affects the shape and color of the sundogs. Misaligned or wobbling crystals produce colorful and elongated sundogs. The parhely circle is a horizontal circle at the same height as the sun, barely visible in the photo above, more so in the photo below. There may be brighter points on it, at the intersections with the halos called parhely, at 120° called parenthely and at the opposite of the sun called anthely (rare). When those points are bright, they are often called "fake suns" or "sun dogs" and they are visible here.
And just in case you're wondering, yes, it IS cold here. Very cold. Un-frickin'-believably COLD. 40 to 50 degrees below windchill cold. Minus 32 degrees WITHOUT windchill! The kind where if you boil a pot of water and throw it up in the air, it freezes into crystallized vapor instantly. And no, I'm not going to do it and take a photo of it, I don't care HOW MUCH I love POTD!



31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow those are amazing! I have never seen that before!
Cari

Margaret said...

I love your shots and all the info to go with them. I can't believe how cold it is where you are! BRRRRR!

Alicia Barry said...

Thanks for the explanation. I have never heard of a sundog before. Great photos.

Mom2Drew said...

I've never heard of a sundog, but they rock! Thanks for enlightening me tonight.

amazing grace said...

okay, i feel so educated now--:) wow!!! i've never heard of sundogs before...:0

great images!

cherie said...

never heard of this, thanks for sharing. great photos.

Liz said...

Oh that is cold and I am sure quite miserable to deal with but darn, it produced some spectacular photos!
Those last two shots are just gorgeous! I could see them on canvas. LOVELY captures Angela.

pat said...

These are absolutely amazing! Thanks for the shots and the explanations...we'll never see anything like that in Seattle.

Sara said...

You tease- that sounds like a fantastic photo!!! ; )

You are most knowledgeable about COLD, but that makes sense with how cold it is where you are. I can't quite wrap my head around just how cold that is. Wow.

For Over 29 Years... said...

OH please Oh please!!! I would love to see that!!! Thanks for all those explanantions. I've never seen anything like that.

Stacey said...

This is great and so amazing! Thank you for sharing. Sitting here in flip flops in FL, it's a stretch to remember that type of cold (oh, but I do, lol!).

Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs said...

Awesome! Thanks for cluing us in!

For Over 29 Years... said...

LOTMFL!!!! Your comment about my nephews name was hysterical!!! not Nikon. BAHHHH thanks for making my night.

Anonymous said...

Love 'em all but the 4th photo is amazing. I can not even begin to imagine what that kind of cold feels like. I would never and I do mean never leave the house. I also would not be able to afford my gas bill because my heater would be at 110 at all times. I didn't even know you could do that with boiling water I sure would like to see it done.

Becky said...

Well something was missing in my education or I wasn't listening in science class one day, because I've never heard of this. Thanks for the education and the beautiful photos, Angela!

Jeanette said...

Wow great shots. I never knew about Sundogs.

pakosta said...

that first one is amazing!!!!
and i just LOVE all of these!
COLD BRRR!
tara

Kari said...

Oh, I just can't even say enough about your photos!!! Completely amazing :) Thanks for continuing to share your amazing talent!

Ljonezy said...

wow angela - you have the best photos! i love how you told us about the sundogs. i had never heard of them and loved finding out about them! I'm just glad i can look at your pics of them and not have to live with them.

Teri said...

I have a thing for beautiful sky's. These are awesome.

Anonymous said...

Those are so amazing. I had no idea what a sundog was. I was looking for a dog basking in the sun in the photos. Beautiful shots. The blues are just oustanding.

Unknown said...

Burrr,,, Looking at them makes me cold. You got some really great captures here! tfs. Toni

Bobbi said...

Oh my gosh that is cold! I love your post cause I learned something new-thank you!!

Shawna said...

I never knew about this... thanks for the educational post! I learned something! Great shots! I love what you did in the 2nd one!

Tori said...

These are so cool! And I have to say... I learned something new today just from reading your blog! Thanks! :)

Amy said...

Oh.My.Gosh! I can't imagine that kind of cold! We have tons of snow here, but I don't think it has ever gone below -10F. I've never heard of a sundog, I'm so glad you explained it and included photos! The circle thing is really cool, I've never seen one of those either!

Tera Fraley said...

Holy moly thats cold!! Im sitting here freezing and its in the 4o's. TFS!! Ive never heard of that and the pictures are great! How neat

Suzy said...

Thanks for the info about Sundogs. Now I'm going to be looking for one. I'd never heard of them before.

Ann said...

Cool things those sundogs. They might make a drunk wonder though. LOL

Dawn said...

Amazing....sundog is new to me...and i thought i was cold growing up in Vermont...i don't think so....your photo-i don't know what to say..you should be published!!
dewnie

Jeanne said...

Let me add my wonder to your comments! I learned something new as well as I'd never heard about sundogs before, either.

I just love looking at the photos you capture. They are so interesting! I agree that you should be published somewhere. To me, it looks like you have an excellent eye for capturing interesting shots.

Keep 'em coming!