Sun Doggies and Other Canines

 
Was getting ready to take a quick walk this afternoon, and... talk about timing! Look what was waiting for me.

Sun dog to the left of the sun. Way over there... 22 degrees away, to be exact.



Sun dog to the right of the sun.



Here's the left one closer. This is what I saw first.



The right one was more of a smudge of color through that hole in the cloud.



On the way around my loop I found another doggie track. The fox? Not sure. The tracks are not outlandishly large for fox, but perhaps a tiny bit. The were very straight, and foxes tend to be a bit more slanted. But I haven't seen any stray dogs around, and the fox could be very sure of himself back there.



Remember the winter I showed you tracks all the time? Must have been a great year with the snow just right for tracks... there hasn't been one like it since then.

In other news: I picked up a free lance job that is very worth the money (which I sure need right now), but they want a nearly impossible turnaround time. At least that means it will be over with soon! I picked up the final cover art for The Secret Cellar, and got it scanned. I met with the guy who is handing off being in charge of the Writers' Rendezvous to me for this year. I delivered books to the bookstore. Then I worked on the Rendezvous, and started working on the final cover for SC. We'll see if any actual writing happens yet today.

	See My First Sun Dog
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Ring Around the Moon

 
Last night, I saw my first complete moon halo. I'm quite sure all I'd ever seen before was that bright fuzzy circle that surrounds the moon but is in close.

This was the best picture I could manage since I am not adept at the manual settings on the camera. But, if you look out away from the moon you can see a much larger pale circle and the sky appears darker between it and the moon. The circle is more than half the width of the picture- got it?



These halos are always 22 degrees from the moon (or the sun). Bright spots 90 degrees apart on the circle are called moon dogs. Because moonlight is not as bright as sunlight the rings appear colorless, but they are essentially rainbows. Sometimes you can detect faint red color on the inside and blue on the outside. I couldn't see that last night.

They also occur in the daytime, and the bright spots will have rainbow colors. Then it's called a sun dog. But you can see the full circles around the sun as well. I've never seen that, but a quick internet search will bring up some fantastic pictures.

They form when there are high cirrus clouds full of ice crystals. The light is refracted forming the ring. The sky always appears a deeper color inside the ring. It's often a signal of storms. That wasn't true of this one- we are continuing the nice weather for the present time.

I read that the week of Hurricane Sandy there were moon halos seen all over the country.

In this version of the picture, I messed with the contrast so you can really see the dark circle. You can also tell that the inner edge of the ring is sharp while the outer edge is fuzzy.



Very cool stuff. I love seeing new things. Now I need a sun halo and moon dogs to complete the set!

In other news: Work yesterday/last night was long and difficult. Today I'm doing a little editing, but not much.

	See Sun Dog
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My First Sun Dog (Not a Rainbow)

 
Seriously? Well, it seems to be the first one I've posted on a blog. I suppose I think they are trite, even though they are beautiful.

This one was a bit odd, though. It hadn't rained at all. Nor snowed. I had finished my last assignment yesterday and was headed home. I was in Ludington, and had to find a place where I could get off the street and still see the color to take a picture.

You might think the "burned out" part of the image is the sun showing through the clouds. Not so. The sun was a good 15 degrees away from the rainbow. I don't know why that one spot was so bright.

Next odd part. This was all there was of it. It was more like a rain-spot. That doesn't sound as pleasant as rain-bow, though, does it? Sounds more like a puddle.

It was sort of a color puddle in the sky.

OK, enough build-up. Here is is.



Vanilla and Chuck suggested this is a sun dog. So, today I have learned something new. The red side of a sun dog is toward the sun, so that is exactly what it is. I always thought the blue side was toward the sun, but the light is refracted (through ice in the atmosphere) rather than reflected, so the colors are reversed.

Thanks, guys! I love learning things.

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