While staying with relatives down in Bedford Indiana, one morning before we left to French Lick Casino I saw a large field of AC clouds slowly moving out of the area and I know AC clouds means elliptical halos. I looked up and saw the trailing edge of the clouds nearing the sun and I noticed they were forming virga sheets and as it drew nearer I took the gamble to watch. As the sun came into view I saw a diffuse sunpillar form and it later on got more defined and I watched as a small crescent of light formed in the pillar and it coalesed into an elliptical halo! Throughout the duration I could only see one ellipse and it was quite bright and well defined. I only need two more to tie Mika Sillanpaa's record. Look out Mika I need two more observations to tie your record and who knows I could beat it. I will gamble with halos not at slot machines at least I won't loose money with halos. (
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Text: Michael Ellestad
Michael, you are in top shape. Next time you see ellipses, try to take also photos with wider angle so that the overall cloud situation in the sky becomes evident.
ReplyDeleteI may do that next time I did once during the big elliptic halo display back in 2008.
ReplyDeleteMichael - fantastic catch again! And I agree with Marko - I also want to see this phenomenon with a wider angle.
ReplyDeleteOne more question Michael, how long this one lasted?
ReplyDeleteJakub,
ReplyDeleteYes a wonderful catch indeed and if you think that was nice the day before yesterday I got large halo complex that had bright parry, nice 46infra, bright 120d parhelia, and the best of all WEGENER ARC!!! I will try to do wide angle when ellipse appears again.
@ Marko,
The halo lasted for a little over 5 minutes.
Just need two more observations to tie Mika's record