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Coloured spot in morning sky, any ideas?

  • 22-09-2014 08:47PM
    #1
    Adam anto
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 155 ✭✭


    Hi,
    Saw it this morning at 8.30 over Dublin. Stayed in the sky for the duration of my drive (10mins).
    Is it possible to have a partial rainbow?? (with no rain??)
    Just never saw anything like it before any was curious.
    Is there a more suitable forum for this?

    Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    Adam anto
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 155 ✭✭Adam anto


    Ops, here's the pic..
    Adam anto wrote: »
    Hi,
    Saw it this morning at 8.30 over Dublin. Stayed in the sky for the duration of my drive (10mins).
    Is it possible to have a partial rainbow?? (with no rain??)
    Just never saw anything like it before any was curious.
    Is there a more suitable for for this?

    Thanks


  • #3
    murphyme2010
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 235 ✭✭murphyme2010


    It looks like a sun dog.

    Michael.


  • #4
    irlpic
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 360 ✭✭irlpic


    A fire rainbow


  • #5
    Adam anto
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 155 ✭✭Adam anto


    murphyme2010 wrote: »
    It looks like a sun dog.

    Michael.

    Thanks for the replies. Looks like a sun dog alright. Never heard of that before. That's my new thing I've learned today:-)

    Thanks again..


  • #6
    jfSDAS
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 352 ✭✭jfSDAS


    hi Adam anto,

    Good catch to spot that sun dog ... Michael is correct in his identification.

    A good web site on atmospheric optics is http://www.atoptics.co.uk and the specific page on sun dogs is at http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm

    Parhelia (or singular is "parhelion") is the scientific term and means "beside the sun". You can also get moon dogs or "parselene" but they are quite faint because of the dimmer light of the Full Moon. Still, parselene have been photographed on occasion.

    "Fire rainbow" is a general term that has crept into use for a number of atmospheric phenomena, specifically circumhorizontal arcs. These arcs are extremely vivid but not that frequent from our latitude as the Sun has to be quite high as in the summer months. Ideally, the term "fire rainbow" relates to circumhorizontal arcs to avoid confusion with other atmospheric arcs and halos. Terms like this sometimes are a colourful way to describe a vivid phenomenon.

    Keep looking up!

    John


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  • #7
    raspberrypi67
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 846 ✭✭✭raspberrypi67


    Looks like a bull dog to me......What the hell is a sundog, NEVER heard of this....


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