Optical Phenomena of the Sky

 The National Audubon Society writes "that an Optical Phenomena are the visual results

 of a wide variety of physical conditions in the atmosphere.  

These phenomena occur through the refection, refraction, and diffraction of light. "

HALOS       Halos come in full circles but more often come in complex curves.

While up at Sullivan Lake, Washington I happened upon this rare phenomenon combination of a Parry Arc and a Circumzenithal arc, with the sun was low in the horizon.

The Parry arc, lower of the two, is a combination of an upper concave Parry Arc and a circumscribed halo below it forming a football shape.

Circumzenithal Arc

Circumzenithal arcs form when the sun is less than about 32' above the horizon.

The beginning of a halo that over a period of time turned into the next picture.

Some halos are soft red on the inside and pale blue on the outside like this one. Captured out my back door using the tree to block the sun.

Halo with an Upper tangent arc 

and  two sundogs.

The upper and lower Tangent arcs are caused by refraction of light above and below the sun though ice - crystals. 

Sunlight refracting 

at at 22' angle thought 

Hexagonal ice-crystals

Note the smoke from burning made it impossible to see the valley below.

Close up.

Sundog with a horizontal white tail

Commonly seen in Cirrus clouds.

Pillars are a shaft of light that comes up from the sun. The sun is usually low on the horizon. 

Crepuscular Rays

Pend Oreille Lake, Idaho

The Hobbit Walk  

Good thing for us.

RAINBOWS

Oregon waterfalls

Kalispell Lake Rainbow

 Night time Rainbows at a Monster Truck Rally     

 It was raining at the time.

CODED 

100 feet high, lasting 1 - 20 minutes.

This one occurred over the Ocean in the middle of a beautiful sunset.

Everyone had stopped what they were doing and had come outside.