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The Eye of Sauron Appears Over Sweden
Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy Blog
It’s a little bit weird to think that sometimes, when you look at the sky, it looks like it’s looking back.
That shot was taken by astrophotographer (and friend of the BA blog) Göran Strand. It shows an amazing display of atmospheric optics caused by ice crystals high in the atmosphere. He took it on April 25, 2014, around noon local time.
There are three main optical phenomena seem here. The circle around the Sun is the 22° halo, which is relatively common. It’s formed when ice crystals (likely shaped like hexagonal cylinders) bend light around the Sun. It sometimes can have a red inner edge, which you can see faintly in Strand’s original shot.
Below it and to the left is part of the much more rare 46° halo. The rainbow colors are a bit more obvious, and if you look to the right, just over the trees and underneath the squiggly contrail, you can see another part of the halo.
That shot was taken by astrophotographer (and friend of the BA blog) Göran Strand. It shows an amazing display of atmospheric optics caused by ice crystals high in the atmosphere. He took it on April 25, 2014, around noon local time.
There are three main optical phenomena seem here. The circle around the Sun is the 22° halo, which is relatively common. It’s formed when ice crystals (likely shaped like hexagonal cylinders) bend light around the Sun. It sometimes can have a red inner edge, which you can see faintly in Strand’s original shot.
Below it and to the left is part of the much more rare 46° halo. The rainbow colors are a bit more obvious, and if you look to the right, just over the trees and underneath the squiggly contrail, you can see another part of the halo.
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