Negative Solar Altitude Halos

[Michael Ellestad]

Hey Folks,

Here it is.

http://ohio-optics.blogspot.com/

If The blog user interface was not so complicated on the Ice Crystal halos blog I'd post on it but since the Blogit interface is hi-tech rocket science I either have Agnes do it for me or someone else but now that I have my own I'll do it. This weekend when I get a few hours I'll upload the images of the October 13 2008 display from my external drive so you guys can see my sunset UTA and whats really cool was seeing blue spot on parhelic circle, very nice 120d parhelia, and found in photos afterwards Wegener arcs!!!

There was also an exquisite parry arc as well in the daytime stage

Regards,

Michael

[Nick Beck]

Hello Michael,

I like the blog a lot! You sure have gotten a lot of elliptical halos, I haven't seen any yet. That whole display was interesting and beautiful, you must've gotten lucky.

Best,

Nick

[Michael Ellestad]

Hey Nick,

Thanks I am glad you like my atoptics blog. As time goes on I will be adding more images including some old pics that date back to 2000. Those elliptical halos are some neat rare halos my first one was in 2005 and is kinda historical because it was the first one since 1987 and I got a couple more ellipses this year. My best elliptical halos was March 23rd and it lasted over 2 hours and at times there were three ellipses around the sun at once. I've gotten numerous odd radius halos and their arcs and I have gotten rare arcs from hex columns like helic arc, wegener arc and tricker arcs. Hope for more in the coming days since its been kind of halo free except for a parry arc I got a couple weeks ago.

Regards,

Michael

[Alec Jones]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for posting the link. With the stunning quality of some of your observations, your blog should be an interesting read. Hope you get some halo activity soon!

Best,

Alec

[Michael Ellestad]

Hey Folks,

The pics of the October 13 halo display from 2008 are on my blog and there are two pics of the sunset tangent arc on there too.

Enjoy,

Michael

[Alec Jones]

Hi Michael,

Absolutely superb! A sharp and very well defined UTA. How long did the UTA last and at the time the photos were taken what was the altitude of the sun below the horizon? Just set?

Great job!!

Alec

[Michael Ellestad]

Hey Alec,

I'm glad you liked that. I think it lasted a few minutes and at the time when the UTA was red I could not see the sun and it was below horizon and was not able to calculate the negative elevation. I'll have to check out the pics and see what the time was.

Regards,

Michael

[Alec Jones]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for that, much appreciated. I have to say that I am very excited by that UTA and the possibilities it opens up. Perhaps we should coin a new term for all negative solar altitude phenomena? How about "red halos" or "red zone phenomena"? Only joking....

Best,

Alec