Glory

New Year's Eve found us on a plane heading home from Yellowstone. And as we took off I noticed a thin veil of clouds between us and the ground. I readied the camera and was rewarded with glories.

I liked that the clouds were so thin the ground was visible through them.

But as continued on the clouds thickened.

Eventually the surface faded form view and there were just the clouds, the shadow, and the colored rings.

As we climbed on up to cruising altitude the shadow of the plane grew smaller and smaller. And then it was gone.

If you bigafy the image and look closely you can see the "rings" extend to the edge of the frame (I increased the saturation in Photoshop to bring this out in the image above.)

The show lasted for close to an hour. But eventually the sky cleared and the target was gone. It was the best apparition of a glory I've had the pleasure to observe.  Next time you go flying grab a window seat on the side opposite the sun. And maybe you'll be treated to a glory. Be sure to have your camera ready.