Monday 6 April 2009

Elliptical and odd radius halos on the same day

On the way home from work I photographed a bright elliptical halo ( 1 ). Later on as winds from a cold front pushed a lot of low level cumuliform clouds away and I was on the state route when this happened and I held my sunglasses near my car's windshield I could make out a bright arc on top of a halo and a closer look showed another halo. I pulled off on to a small road and got to watch a half decent odd radius halo. in all I got 9, 18, 20, 23, and faint 35d halos and a bright upper 23d plate arc ( 2 - 3 ).

Text: Michael Ellestad
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12 comments:

  1. Jari6 April 2009 at 22:47

    Now there's a decent catch for a day! Very nice! There seems to be some 18d plate arc action as well.

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  2. marko6 April 2009 at 23:42

    Very good Michael. You keep getting ellipses. They are seen (regularly) only by those who watch the sky relentlessly. I haven't seen for a while...

    There is poor column orientation in the pyramid display. Both the 9 and 20 halos are brighter on the sides.

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  3. Michael7 April 2009 at 04:14

    Yeah you know what Marko I noticed the same thing myself that the 20d halo is brighter on the sides and 9d halo is the same. As far as the ellipse goes this is the second one for me this year and the fifth since I saw my first one in 2005 which was the first observed in the USA since 1987. As far as the odd radius display goes seeing all those rings at once was quite a joy. Next time I need to shoot more frames to do a larger stack. I am also getting better with the registax photo stacker my dad likes it too.

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  4. Jukka7 April 2009 at 08:47

    Ellipses are difficult to see so I must agree with Marko: one must be a truly active sky watcher to be able to see them as often as you, Michael.

    High cloud odd radius season is on! Very nice.

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  5. Marko7 April 2009 at 11:10

    Very nice ! I haven't seen ellipses so far nevertheless I consider myself very active sky watcher. I guess it also depends on your residential location - open inland, coastal area, mountain region...Michael where do you live ? What was the sun's elevation at the time of taking the shots ?

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  6. Mika7 April 2009 at 18:44

    Very nice, Michael! I've seen ellipses only twice since 2002, when I started this halo thing.

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  7. Michael7 April 2009 at 19:11

    Marko I don't know what the elevation was I saw after I left work at 3:30 PM I live in Ohio USA

    Mika!

    First time I heard from you I love you homepage you got nice photos. I hope for more halos soon!!!

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  8. Ágnes / Ági7 April 2009 at 22:38

    Congratulations on this catch, Michael. It must have been a grand day!

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  9. Marko8 April 2009 at 00:58

    According to my calculations the sun's elevation was 45.3 degree at 3:30PM.

    The sun hits its peak elevation 72.5 degree in the middle of June in Ohio. Interestingly most of the pyramidial stuff has a broad or somewhat spread out look at this elevation.

    I bet the circumscribed halo looks fantastic and so is the CHA.

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  10. Michael8 April 2009 at 03:34

    Yes Agnes that was a sweet catch indeed.


    I know one thing Marko the sun can get quite high in Ohio USA. I can't wait to see CHA this year myself.

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  11. Kuba9 April 2009 at 02:44

    Nice shots, Michael! Congrats!

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  12. Michael9 April 2009 at 06:46

    Thanx Jakub I appreciate it.


    Have you ever saw odd radius or ellipse before?

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