First diamond dust in Finland

The winter in Lappland was two weeks late but when it finally arrived last weekend, along came the diamond dust. Decent displays were seen here in Rovaniemi on two nights and one day. In the night time I used a bright lamp to create the halos. The photo here is from the second night showing the anthelic region with diffuse arcs. More photos, including all sky views, will follow some time later when I am done with them.

Text: Marko Riikonen

First diamond dust in Finland

The winter in Lapland was two weeks late but when it finally arrived last weekend, along came the diamond dust. Decent displays were seen here in Rovaniemi on two nights and one day. In the night time I used a bright lamp to create the halos. The photo here is from the second night showing the anthelic region with diffuse arcs. More photos, including all sky views, will follow some time later when I am done with them.

Pyramidal crystal halos

A funny coincidence that a halo-observer may want to experience is travelling to Egypt and seeing some pyramidal crystal halos. This odd-radius display was photographed by Márk Laczkó of Budapest, Hungary somewhere over the southern borders of Romania. He was sitting on an airplane heading towards Egypt on 27th October. When he realised they were flying in cirrus clouds, he deliberately started looking for some halo phenomena. The surprisingly well distinguishable 18°, 20°, 23° and 24° halos were visible for about a minute at 06:21 UTC. Unfortunetally there is no documentation or report of a possible 35° halo. The original photo ( 1 ) and two other pictures are also available ( 2 - 3 ).

Pyramidal crystal halos

A funny coincidence that a halo-observer may want to experience is travelling to Egypt and seeing some pyramidal crystal halos.

This odd-radius display was photographed by Márk Laczkó of Budapest, Hungary somewhere over the southern borders of Romania. He was sitting on an airplane heading towards Egypt on 27th October. When he realised they were flying in cirrus clouds, he deliberately started looking for some halo phenomena. The surprisingly well distinguishable 18°, 20°, 23° and 24° halos were visible for about a minute at 06:21 UTC. Unfortunately, there is no documentation or report of a possible 35° halo. The original photo and two other pictures are also available (#1 and #2).

Elliptical Halo in Vecsés, Hungary

Today on 21st October at 11:27 local time I saw this elliptical halo above Vecsés, Hungary. I was photographing Ac len and iridescent Ac clouds, when I caught sight of the display. The elliptical halo formed on the ice crystal precipitation of one of the Ac. The display lasted less than two minutes, so I really had to hurry to find a good object to shield the Sun with, and not to miss the sight meanwhile. In the first photo - I was still using the neighbouring house's wall, - even the reddish inner side of the halo can be seen. More photos.

Elliptical halo in Vecsés, Hungary

Today on 21st October at 11:27 local time I saw this elliptical halo above Vecsés, Hungary. I was photographing Ac len and iridescent Ac clouds, when I caught sight of the display. The elliptical halo formed on the ice crystal precipitation of one of the Ac. The display lasted less than two minutes, so I really had to hurry to find a good object to shield the Sun with, and not to miss the sight meanwhile. In the first photo - I was still using the neighbouring house's wall, - even the reddish inner side of the halo can be seen. More photos are also available ( 1 )

Austrian halo display with Parry arc

On October 9, 2007, my husband and I made a trip to Austria to visit the highest mountain of that country, Mt. Großglockner, 3798m ( 1 ). The main ridge of the alps gave a warm welcome to us with a bright and diffuse fragment of the infralateral arc ( 2 ). Just a little later, at a sun elevation of 33.4°, a sharply defined Parry arc ( 3 ) formed directly above the upper tangent arc. There were only few occasions that we saw it in such a brightness before. The beautiful halo display was completed by sundogs ( 4 ) and an almost complete parhelic circle ( 5 - 6 ). Even the heliac arc seemed to be present, as we both recognized it. The cirrus clouds, however, showed a very striated structure, so it cannot clearly be identified in our photographs.

In the afternoon, at a sun elevation of 30.9°, a fragment of the parhelic circle appeared in a narrow cirrus fiber together with a bright 120°-sundog. This sundog not only had a greenish and reddish rim ( 7 ), but also showed a striking vertical extension from time to time. Below it there seemed to be kind of cross-formed arcs ( 8 ) like those which normally appear around the anthelion only.

Text: Claudia Hinz