Sun Photo From Mojave Desert, What is this???

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

Saw this today driving back from the Mojave Road (detail writeup later)

Giant, perfectly symetrical ring around the sun, what is it???

The ring was MUCH more apparent in person and not through the camera!

 

[DaktariEd]

Cool!
That's a solar halo.
It's a ring caused by light refracting through high altitude hexagonal ice crystals (in those cirrus clouds in your photo). The most common solar halo occurs 22˚ from the sun...which looks about right based on your photos....but can also occur at an angle of 46˚.

Either way, cool deal!

 

[adventureduo]

Cool!
That's a solar halo.
It's a ring caused by light refracting through high altitude hexagonal ice crystals (in those cirrus clouds in your photo). The most common solar halo occurs 22˚ from the sun...which looks about right based on your photos....but can also occur at an angle of 46˚.

Either way, cool deal!

Ed, how rare are these?

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

Thanks Ed!

Very amazing sight i must say!

 

[calamaridog]

"Solar halo" my :shakin:

You just need to clean your windshield

 

[DaktariEd]

Ed, how rare are these?

Unusual, but probably not considered rare.
I've seen them a few times....over quite a few years.

 

[benedmonson]

To add a twist to this ring around the sun, my wife and I were traveling thru La Paz, Baja 2 years ago and saw the same ring around the moon one night. Tried to photograph it, but didn't have my digital camera with me and the old tried and true F16@1/125 exposure for the moon didn't work out..... It was amazing to see and have never figured out what it was.

 

[Overland Hadley]

To add a twist to this ring around the sun, my wife and I were traveling thru La Paz, Baja 2 years ago and saw the same ring around the moon one night. Tried to photograph it, but didn't have my digital camera with me and the old tried and true F16@1/125 exposure for the moon didn't work out..... It was amazing to see and have never figured out what it was.

One night last summer I sailed under a moon halo (lunar halo?) for a couple hours, very cool.

Although I must say that sailing at night by the Northern Lights is by far the most interesting.

 

[BKCowGod]

ALIENS!!!! Don't believe this so-called "science"

it's all a plot by the Government to keep us from knowing the Truth that ******** Cheney is an alien sent here to investigate why cows have four stomaches. :cow:

 

[calamaridog]

And here I thought it was a dirty windshield!

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

Hey Ed

Could these occur around the moon too??

My mom who was with us claimed she saw rings around the moon the night before, i thought she had too much wine!

 

[Mlachica]

Is it also known as a corona ring?

 

[Scofco]

Up here we call them sundogs. I belive the term stems from Greek mythology.

This photo taken a few days ago:

This one is from 2004:

Quite common when the temperature reaches -35 or below, though usually only in little snippets like this:

Photos taken by my father.

 

[UK4X4]

These are pretty neat and we saw quite a few down in venezuela during my time there,

you can also get ones with dual rings, and also vertical /horizontal lines too in the form of a cross.

I never managed to photo one

 

[Mc Taco]

Great photos of a cool phenomenon. I've heard that they sometimes are a precursor to rain ahead. Thanks for posting.