Vermont Sun Dogs (Cloud Appreciation Society image)

[SorellaLaBefana]

In the bitter 2ºF...chill of morning over...Vermont...Andrea Anthony...spotted a pair of parhelia, or sun dogs, glimmering on either side of the rising Sun. These are bright spots of light with reddish edges that can appear as the sunlight refracts through prism-like ice crystals in the shape of tiny hexagonal plates.

Often, parhelia are produced by ice crystals up in high-level Cirrus or Cirrostratus clouds, but Andrea’s sun dogs were born much closer to home. The morning light was shining through a ground-level mist of glittering ice crystals known as diamond dust. You can see evidence of this in the out-of-focus sparkles captured in the middle of her image.

The glitters result from the gentle wobble of the ice crystals as they fall through the still air like autumn leaves. This same wobble has the effect of stretching out the parhelia into golden vertical beams.

Light from the moon can also give rise to such wonderful phenomena. These magical nocturnal lights are called Moon Dogs (paraselenae) named for Selene (the moon), sister of Helios (the sun).

Happy Groundhog Day, or, if it is your tradition, Happy Candlemas

[rampartd]

1. happy groundhog day

for some reason mrs rampart likes to see those idiots in top hats abuse the groundhog. better let her know.

[Goonch]

2. ;-{)

[democrank]

3. Beautiful sun dog shot

Thank you for posting this.

[SorellaLaBefana]

4. It is just So Good to know that people are still finding Beauty in this World

Image from Space Shuttle Discovery showing the afternoon sun over the Andes Mountains

In 1948, the British physicist Fred Hoyle wrote that “once a photograph of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available… a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose”. For millennia, human beings could only imagine what the Earth might look like seen from the viewpoint of the heavens. Some ancient Greek philosophers had suspected that the Earth was probably a sphere. Plato even thought that the Earth might be a brightly coloured sphere – but, being Plato, he had in mind a Platonic ideal of the Earth rather than the Earth itself. By the second century AD, the astronomer Ptolemy knew from scientific considerations – by observation and measurement – that the Earth is, indeed, round. But knowing is not the same as seeing...

https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/earth-from-space-how-photos-photographs-planet/

We need to keep seeing!

[GiqueCee]

5. Lovely photo...

... here in central Vermont, it's currently 13º below zero, and sunny. Rumor has it that it's supposed to warm up a bit this week, but without some cloud cover radiational cooling will keep us shivering. Thank goodness there's been no wind! That can increase the possibility of frost-bitten cheeks in a hurry.
Think warm thoughts, y'all!

[TheRickles]

6. Beautiful! A rainbow made by ice crystals - an icebow. :-)

I'm guessing these beautiful formations can occur at sunrise or sunset. Anyone know if that's correct? And also, as with other sunrise/sunset photos, it's not possible to tell whether it's morning or evening unless one knows the setting and the lay of the land. Something I've often puzzled over - they're mirror images of each other.

[raccoon]

7. I remember sun dogs being mentioned in the book MRS MIKE.

I’ve never seen them in real life. I live too far south for that.

[lark]

8. Thank you for sharing this rare beauty, it makes me smile.

Wow, how lucky to see this when you get up in the am.