Rurality has previously posted on Sun Dogs (and also on other sun effects) on her excellent blog. And once again proving that there isn’t an original thought in my head I thought I’d post this picture of the sun dogs here this morning, taken about a half hour ago.
Growing up, we’d always thought of Sun dogs as harbingers of colder weather. I no longer think of them that way, as often they appear here when the weather is strikingly cold (which isn’t the case today) and no further drop in temperature occurs.
But they sure are beautiful.
Comments
6 responses
Oh, is that what a sun dog is! I’d always wondered. Gorgeous! I saw them for the first time in Northern Ontario back in January, and yep, it sure was cold! I didn’t know what it was though, although I’d heard the term before. You captured them well in this photo, very beautiful.
oh WOW. Those are cool, Clare.
Thanks for the fantastic photo. I downloaded it to my computer (c:
Spectacular pic Clare!
We see sundogs quite often here, but your photo of them located on the horizon is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen. Do you know the web site Atmospheric Optics: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/? Look up the section on Rays and Shadows: Ice Halos for sundogs.
In German, “sun dogs” are called Nebensonnen which translates to “side suns”.
They can be seen in Northern Germany once in a while in winter but never as bright as on your very nice photo. Thanks very much for sharing!!
Thanks Nancy, another term for them that you may/may not have heard is Parhelia.
Thanks Amy enjoy the picture.
Thanks Wolfgang
Thanks Pam in Tucson. Interesting link. One of the things I’ve never realized until I looked closer at this picture was just how close the sundogs are. Looking closely I noticed that the sundogs are partially below the skyline, so they occur within a kilometre of where I took the picture.
Hey Jochen. Nebensonnen sounds so much nicer than sundogs. Much more musical of a word.