Halos

I make it a habit to look up in the sky and the other morning I looked up and saw this.

A partial 22° halo, the image taken around 9:00 am, with the sun low in the southeastern sky.

An hour and a half later, the Sun a bit higher, I observed a full halo while out shopping.

Three hours later I'm back home and now looking southwest over the house, from the other side of the chimney. Just a bit of the halo remains. A rather long lasting display.

22° haloes are one of the most common atmospheric effects, and can be seen around both the Sun and Moon (most often when full or close to). But since we have an aversion to looking at the Sun, they are not frequently observed. Which, in my humble opinion, is a bit of a shame. And if you're not in the habit of looking for the common halos you'll certainly miss the unusual ones.

I was lucky enough to see this unusual display [click the links to see more].

And would love to see something like this or this. Perhaps a ski trip to Europe is in order ...