From: Ben Pittenger (benpittenger@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed Jun 05 2002 - 07:35:15 PDT
Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 07:35:15 -0700 From: Ben Pittenger<benpittenger@earthlink.net> Subject: Solar halos Message-ID: <Springmail.0994.1023287715.0.79109500@webmail.pas.earthlink.net>
About a week ago (+/-) we saw halos around the sun here in Half Moon Bay. About 20 degrees sounds right. (not having measured it, I'll take the word of the experts) In addition, there was a second, dimmer halo, at about double that angle. The inner halo was easily visible with the naked eye (with fist covering the sun - emphasized for the 10-yr old with us). The outer halo was less intense; much more difficult to see. We were more able to see (parts of) the outer halo with sunglasses that are polarized.
We then discussed the difference between this and a rainbow, where the sun is behind the observer, and the different altitudes of the two phenomena. The ice crystals usually are higher. (The necessary ice crystals tend to be at higher altitudes than the droplets that form rainbows) The halos are more similar to moon rings than to rainbows, unless I'm mistaken.
I love how 10-yr olds are often very fascinated and intense about observations, but for a very short time. I mused about the halos for awhile, but she was off on other explorations in no time at all! But she remembers these things and surprises us all the time by remembering little details.
Ben
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