Digging up old odd radius display for 28d spotting

Hello everyone,

after several talks with Alec, I decided to make some digging into my old odd radius halos displays to search for rare halos and find out some more 28d halo (and 13d halos too).

Here are some examples of what I found so far that might be interesting to submit here to your assessment. I hope you will find those cases interesting.

For some of them, I still have all the raw files of the sequence, for others, I kept few raw images, but for all of them (exposed here at least) I made various time-lapses to keep sequence in B-R rendering, colour rendering, stacked with 4 or 8 images each, like the one I presented earlier in this blog.

I will start with a sharp display of odd radius circular halos I got last year, in April, at the morning.
I'm not usually an early bird so I can miss some nice displays each year. For this one I got the chance to have the display still available to start a capture from my roof window. The center of my house is a stair tower which offer a nice blocking roof for the spot I am from. Therefore, with the shaprness of the display, the 9° ring was particularly well visible on B-R rendering before the sun comes out of the roof (because the diffusion of the light on the lens add noise up to the 9° ring area). There is a first image, B-R rendered from a sole raw image, to give a view of the sharpness of the event:

2022-04-20-SSE-[08h45à19h09]-bw-v4-crop-half-(1)
where we can see clearly 35°, 22°, 23°, 20° and 18° halos

Stacking with the above one as first image, with the 25 following images makes those odd radius halos more clear:

2022-04-20-SSE-[08h45à19h09]-bw-v4-crop-half-(1)-26s27-m
''-m'' stands for ''align manually'' in Registax 5, software I use to make my second processing of stacking if any.

Well, in the light of recent search for 28+° ring, this was one of my first tries even if I was expecting, like for the 13° halo, to find it when the rings are not sharp. But if you don't try, you won't find anything.
So there is a processing the the previous stack to enhance sharp halo first then eventually larger borders ones if any.

2022-04-20-SSE-[08h45à19h09]-bw-v4-crop-half-(1)-26s27-m-UsMl^n&m
''-UsM^n'' stands for Unsharp mask applied several times with various settings (m & n)
Do you see 28° ring ? Or could this be artefact due to unsharp masking ?

There is a folder on my drive, so you can take a look at the time-lapses of the day. As usual, better download it rather than viewing it as a Youtube video, to have a better video compression (as is the original one) Many years ago, I got a nice odd radius display at sunset, during a day of November 2014. The view is not ideal, as I placed my camera on the edge of a window, look south, with a wide angle rectangular lens, hence the distortion. (EoS 1200D + Sigma 8-16mm, set at 8mm). I was so amazed by the display I sent it to Nicolas Lefaudeux to have his expertise on the matter. And then he told me I caught the 28° halo, again (but I don't recall why this 'again') ;-) There is the display, B-R rendered, and unsharp masked.

1st of the odd radius sequence, after altostratus clouds went east, with unsharp mask done

And later in the sequence, after it vanished a first time, 28° ring was there again at the end, without unsharp mask applied [Stack]

Unfortunatly, I did not keep any raw file of this event.
There is a folder where are all the remainings.



And any old how, here are some I cannot say it is, but looks like there might be something there.... or not:

2015-03-07-[]-bw-[8-8]-UsM-[6-5]-UsM (16), Dole, Jura, France (and for the scary look of it!)

2017-03-11-[14h30à18h42]-bw-[8-8]-UsM-[8-4]-UsM (26)-7s7, Dole, Jura, France

2017-04-24-[13h57à20h36]-bw-[8-8]-UsM-[6-4]-UsM (18), Dole, Jura, France

2018-04-04-[18h39à19h19]-bw-[8-8]-UsM-14s14-USM, Pontarlier, Doubs, France

2018-04-09-[14h09à16h42]-bw-[8-8]-UsM-(21)_UsM-9s9-m, Jouhe, Jura, France

2019-05-23-[08h35à17h36]-bw-[8-8]-UsM-(20)_UsM-4s4, Jouhe, Jura, France

2020-04-17-[09h11à14h12]-bw-[8-4]-UsM-(153)-6s6-UsM, Jouhe, Jura, France

2021-02-16-[09h43à14h33]-bw-[8-4]-UsM-24fps(61)-6s6-UsM-histo-UsM, Jouhe, Jura, France

2022-04-11-[08h20à19h48]-bw-[4-2]-UsM-[2-2]-UsM(233)-9s9-UsM, Jouhe, Jura, France

2022-08-02-[09h32à18h09]-SSE-bw-[8-4]-UsM (305)-6s6-h9-h13-h18-h22-P23, Jouhe, Jura, France

2022-11-12-[14h09à16h09]-bw-[8-4]-UsM²-(40)-5s5-UsM-h35, Jouhe, Jura, France

And while browsing at all of those, I realized I got at least a dozen of 13° halos, with at least one with the Moon. Which could make a post after this one, for the record.

And a last one, not for the 28d spotting, but only because I like it a lot:

2021-05-23au24-[22h52à02h56]-bw-(152)-6s6-UsM-2s2-blr-UsM
Sharp odd radius halos with the Moon!, Jouhe, Jura, France

Now, a couple hours after starting this post, I think I may go get some rest ;-).

Greetings from France.
Nicolas R.

A clear 28° halo on snow surface

Sunshine has been a rare phenomenon in Finland this winter. On 16th January, the sky was finally clear and temperature had dropped to -25°C, so I headed to a nearby lakeshore to observe possible surface halos. There were indeed 22° and 46° halos visible on the snow, so I took a set of 335 photos by moving back and forth of a 50 m stretch of a road along the lake. The mirrored stack revealed that this was an odd radius display with 18°, 20°, 23° and 24° halos present. An interesting feature was that 22° and 23° halos were equally strong and well defined in the stack.

Two days later I got another chance to photograph surface halos in the same place. The temperature was -8°C. Only a modest 22° halo with some bright glints outside it were visible to naked eye, so I did not expect much from the stack. Nevertheless, I took 147 photos. This time the mirrored stack looked even better than two days ago: a strong 22° halo accompanied by several odd radius halos, including a clear 28° ring.

A comparison with the previous display (limited by blue frame in the photograph below) provided another surprise: the prominent ”22° halo” was in fact a 23° halo and 22° halo was missing. So this was an odd radius display with 18°, 20°, 23°, 24°, 28°, 35° and 46° halos. Although there are not many observations of 28° halo on surface yet, it seems probable that it is not as rare as has been thought. This gives some hope that a crystal sample can be obtained one day.

The strong 23° halo and the absence of 22° halo in this surface display is interesting. It means that the usual ”22° halo” on snow may in some rare instances be something else than it looks, but it is not easy to detect such cases from the abundance of common 22° halos. For example, the first observation of surface 28° halo on 7 April 2012 by Jari Luomanen and Marko Riikonen looks rather similar as the current one, and it may perhaps contain 23° halo instead of 22° halo (yellow frame below, photo Jari Luomanen). Although all photos in this collage were taken with Samyang 8 mm fisheye lens, the result should be viewed with caution due to the robust alignment.

Odd Radius Display, Bolton, United Kingdom

On the 5th April 2018, there was a short lived but rather nice odd radius display in Bolton, a town situated in the north west of the United Kingdom. As I was preparing to go to work, I noticed the top of what I initially took to be a 22d halo. However, it rapidly developed and became more complex and very soon an 18d became easily visible to the eye. The display lasted about thirty minutes in total and I was only able to take a few single shots and a couple of stacks before it began to fade and I had to leave. Upon processing the images, 9, 18, 23, 24 and 35d halos with attendant plate arcs were identified as being present.

Processing courtesy Nicolas Lefaudeux.

Odd radius plate display from the Czech Republic

On 4th March Jitka R. from the Czech republic captured this magnificent odd radius display on the Moon. After stacking multiple images, many halo forms showed up - particulary 9°, 18°, 20°, 24° and 35° halos, along with 9° and 24° plate arcs.

It was a case of sublimating cirrus, which could be easily seen on the satellite images.

And I have a question for the halo experts - is it possible that the 9° column arcs are captured, too? Or could it just be a cirrus of a higher quality?

Large scale odd radius halo complex on Memorial Holiday 5-29-17

About an hour before midday a layer of cirrus stratus clouds began moving toward the sun and I looked up and saw a colorful 22d halo and I noticed it looked doubled all the way around and looking close to the sun I saw weak 9d halo. I grabbed my camera and then it got spectacular. The 24d halo not only was bright it was sharp and complete and was my best yet to date. While taking picture after picture I saw a segment of a larger halo appear and it turned out the be 35d halo. As the clouds moved thru it peaked with a total of 5 rings the 9,20,22,24, and 35d halos and the 35d halo I got today was my best to date. This could be my best pyramidal display to date but who knows I could get better some day.

Recent displays from Northwestern Russia

In this post I want to share some of my observations from last month, which I made in St Petersburg (from 15th April to 5th May) and in Pskov Oblast (from 7th May to present time). In total there were eleven displays, six of them comprising pyramidal halo forms. Many of these pyramidal displays were minor, so I will not present them.

20th April

The photo on left shows a purely odd-radius plate complex. There are only the upper 23 plate arc with its 23 halo and a couple of 18 plate arcs. On the photo on right you can see fragments of weak odd radius circular halos. Together with the broad 22 halo at the 02-00 position there is the 20 halo and also the diffuse 35 halo.

28th April

Together with classic halo forms in stacks pyramidal halos appeared with odd-radius plate arcs. On photos above you can see lower 24 plate arcs with the 24 halo and the 9 halo (with possible the lower 9 plate arc). The weak and diffuse upper 23 plate arc is also available.

30th April


In the morning there was a short display which lasted less than one hour. The display was not predicted by the meteogram, so maybe I missed most of the display, which was earlier that morning. In any case I saw bright parhelia with the colourful circumzenithal arc, and got in the stack the strong parhelic circle and the upper suncave Parry arc together with the nice upper tangent arc. I think it is the Parry arc, and not an upper 23 plate arc, because the display does not contain no other pyramidal halo forms, and the arc looks pretty sharp.

1st May

In the morning I observed the large and bright upper tangent arc for around one hour. Infralateral arcs were easily seen with naked eye. Together with bright parhelia I saw fragments of a parhelic circle. In stacks the rare Wegener arc was found.

5th May

On that day there was a protracted display, that lasted between six and sixteen hours. But my camera had recorded interesting halos only at the start, on the sunrise. It was an odd-radius circular complex which contained pyramid halos with radii 9, 18, 24 and 35 degrees. It seems the 24 halo included rudimentary upper and lower 24 plate arcs.

10th May

No rare halos on that morning but I saw the supralateral arc visually very well, that happens not often. A curious circumzenithal arc appeared a little later. The CZA was diffuse, that is not typical for this halo. 

Weak odd radius display with possible column arcs

This display occurred on 22th February 2017 in Izborsk (Pskov region, Russia). In the morning it was sunny and the first cirrus started to arrive around 13-00. In that moment, I saw a faint 22° halo, but it was visible because the cloud layer was smooth. Also it seemed to me that I saw a 9° halo through the viewfinder of my camera. The stacks showed pyramidal halos such as 9°, 24° and 35° halo.

The 24° halo looks pretty curious, because B-R processing shows the pause in 24° ring in area of upper tangent arc. It reminds me of 24° column arcs from crystals with big tilts. 9° halo also looks curious, brighter on the sides than on the top, what looks like 9° column arcs.

What do you think of that? 

Weak odd radius display on 09 March 2017

Yesterday in St Petersburg was an odd radius display with a predominance of plate forms.

The morning was cloudy. Around 11-30 sky started to clear. After half an hour the whole sky was covered high clouds. But I did not see any halos. It seemed it was usual bad clouds, which not produce halos. Nevertheless, in some moments I saw very weak and wide 22° halo with something resembles upper 23° plate arc. Also was an episode when I saw compact CZA, which apeared without parhelia. My suspicions have only become stronger, about that I faced with subvisual odd radius display.

It was brilliantly confirmed when I returned to home and processed stacks. I was able to identify such pyramidal forms as upper 9° plate arc (possible), upper 23° plate arc, lower 24° plate arc. Also were captured 9, 18, 20, 22, 24, 35 (very diffuse, link) and 46 halos. Odd radius halos lasted 50 minutes, until 13-30. Then until the end of display (until 15-30) were captured only weak common halos, such as upper tangent arc, parhelia and 22° halo.

It was fourth display since 15 February, which includes pyramidal halos.

Pyramidal crystal halos

A funny coincidence that a halo-observer may want to experience is travelling to Egypt and seeing some pyramidal crystal halos.

This odd-radius display was photographed by Márk Laczkó of Budapest, Hungary somewhere over the southern borders of Romania. He was sitting on an airplane heading towards Egypt on 27th October. When he realised they were flying in cirrus clouds, he deliberately started looking for some halo phenomena. The surprisingly well distinguishable 18°, 20°, 23° and 24° halos were visible for about a minute at 06:21 UTC. Unfortunately, there is no documentation or report of a possible 35° halo. The original photo and two other pictures are also available (#1 and #2).

 

by Ágnes Kiricsi

 

Original post in Halo reports

Moon pyramidal halo complex in Czech Republic

In June when conditions for observing halos aren’t fine because of low full moon elevation, I have had my best observation ever. On cirrostratus veil divided from cumulonimbus cloud firstly appeared 9° halo and later thick halo at 22-24 area. After stacking 20 pictures, it turned out to be 23° and 24° halo. Fragments of 20° halo were not recognizable until stacking photos. Halos were seen at the highest intensity for about half an hour.

Martin Popek

Odd radii in Southern Finland

A horrendously quiet April passed by without any noteworthy action (except Jarmo's fantastic bolide halo). Halo people were awakened from oblivion on 5th May, when a smooth cirrostratus veil crept in from west and offered plate crystals and odd radii halos. The display was seen and photographed by Ismo Luukkonen in Turku, Marko Riikonen in Helsinki (photo on the right by Marko) and Jukka Ruoskanen in Riihimäki.

Most likely all odd radius halos were on the sky, of which 9, 18, 20 and 35 degree halos were easily discernible. The 22-24 region may have consisted of all three possible rings. Also few of the odd radius plate arcs were present, although rather poorly.

Odd radii in Czech Republic

During the Czech halo observers meeting in Kuncice, high clouds created some good displays. This odd radius halo complex was seen on 14. August. It shows 9,° 18°, 20°, 22-24° and 35° halos. Judging from the non-uniform intensity distribution of some of the halos (9° and 20° halos being brightest on the sides), this display was caused by poorly oriented columnar pyramid crystals. It's also interesting that 20° halo is brighter than 18° halo. This type of occurrence is uncommon.

This is stacked image processed by Roman Manak and Patrik Trncak. Original photos were taken by Martin Popek.

By Marko Riikonen

Doubled Halos?

This image was taken in Fukushima pref. in Japan, by Mr. Tasan (handle), May 5, 2006. There are two halos -- the lower one seems a 22 degree halo, but what is the upper one? I think it can be a 24 (or 23?) degree halo, a circular Lowitz arc or a 23 degree plate arc. What are your opinions?

Complex display with odd radius column arcs in Finland

A long-lasting halo display was seen in Southern Finland on 25th April. The gems of the display were odd radius column arcs, of which 9, 20 and 24 degree arcs were seen. Additionally, 9 and 24 degree lower plate arcs as well as an 18 degree halo and possibly a 23 degree upper plate arc were visible for a short period of time during the day. The duration of the display was spectacular; for instance the Wegener anthelic arcs and 120° parhelia were continuously on the sky for almost three to four hours. At the latter stages of the display a beautiful 46° supralateral arc and magnificent circumzenith arc appeared. The display was photographed by many people - Marko Riikonen in Helsinki, Jari Luomanen in Tampere, Lauri Kangas in Espoo, Marja Wallin in Lahti, Timo Viinanen in Hameenlinna and Jukka Ruoskanen in Hyvinkaa.