Post by ducky on Jan 24, 2006 0:30:17 GMT -5
WINTER HALO: The sun was setting and the air was choked with icy crystals on Jan. 3rd when Göte Flodqvist of Stockholm, Sweden, stepped into the parking lot of the Karolinska University Hospital. "I saw this extremely nice halo around the sun," he says.
"Winter's diamond dust ice crystals floating around you make spectacular complex halo displays like this one," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "Diamond dust halos can appear very close, in front of trees and buildings."
"But could we touch them? Sadly, we cannot because halos do not actually exist in real space. They are the rays of light entering your eyes from millions of crystals glinting like diamonds because they are at just the right angles and orientations to the sun. The crystals might be miles away or only a few feet -- their halos are always the same shape and their beauty cannot be touched."
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the unmarked version of this picture is posted now at spaceweather.com but i don't know for how long it will be up. a beautiful shot though.
