A circular halo of light around the sun, with a silhouetted traffic signal.

Two views of a 22-degree circular halo around the sun that I saw on a walk this afternoon.

Halos are a lot more common than I used to think. Then I started actually looking for them. Even on a warm day like today, there can still be ice crystals higher in the atmosphere of the right size and shape to cause a display like this (or even more complicated ones).

A circular halo of light around the sun, with a silhouetted jacaranda tree.

Usually I just go for a utilitarian, “got a picture of the halo,” but this time I tried about five different things to block the sun, trying to compose an interesting shot as well. I’m going to have to keep that up!

3 thoughts on “Compass in the Sky

  1. @kelsonv Not a lot of people actually look up, is what I suspect…

    From over (OMG!) 40 years ago – during a class on history of science, in about 200 students, I was the only one who raised her hand when the prof asked if we had ever seen a “sun dog”.

    I’d seen my *first* one at least 15 years before that time – lots of family road trips meant I got to stare out the window a *lot*!

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