Rodney

Anybody ever see this? I was commuting to work one morning with my wife, and I actually saw two suns in the sky, poking through the clouds, one a little smaller than the other but some distance away. Did a little research, and found out that the phenomenon is called a parhelion, or sun dog, and it's cause by refraction of sunlight through masses of regularly aligned ice crystals in the upper atmosphere; under the right conditions, they form a giant lens.

Here's a pretty good approximation of what we saw, although ours was in the morning and we could only see one "dog;" it's always possible the other was hidden by clouds, or couldn't been seen from the angle we were at.

http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/webcam/sun_dog.html

Or, maybe it's all a dream and my mind was hazed by the chemtrails...

ironchefrocks

yeah <b>Rodney.</b>

Sundogs happen when the sun is low in the sky and there's lots of ice crystals in the sky. I saw them all the time when I was up doing research in the Arctic. People who spent more time there than I did laughed heartily when I first saw them and stared for a while, mesmorized. I guess we all take beauty in nature for granted when we see it all the time.

Rodney

Ironchefrocks:

I live in Central California on the coast, and sun dogs are basically unheard of down here. But a cold air mass had moved down from the Arctic into our area that particular day, and so that probably made the ice crystals. But I would never take it for granted, no matter how often I saw it.

hu-man

Wow, I'd love to see that sometime...

shakran

You'd be surprised. I took this for granted, until I moved. . .

Tholo

I saw one once when I was extremely young, but I still remember the sight vividly to this day. It was mesmerizing.

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sadistikdreams

Me and my sis saw one of these... Though it looked like a fucking mirror in the sky. Actually, it was a few weeks ago. Its a damn cool thing. Almost as cool as a harvest moon. Red-orange moons are so beautiful.

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Infernal

Wow I never heard of sun dog. I'd love to see that but its hard to see anything in the sky in NY.

Zander

That is amazingness

opackfan

I never heard of a sun dog either, yet another beautiful phenomena of nature

iamnormal

What research was you doing?

kutulu

Here in Arizona we see harvest moons all the time. Never seen a sun dog though.

ladyadmin

The most mesmerizing and beautiful things in life lie right outside our front doors. I'd like to see this up close.

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Venus

I've never seen a sun dog but I've seen the Northern Lights...talk about beautiful! Oh, and shakran: what possesed you to move away from that! (referring to the pic you posted)

venusinfurs

never be able to see anything that cool arround here....'cept for glows from the city and smog at times. ek.

Date the Banana

Sun Dogs are great, but usually it's gotta be damn cold outside to get enough Ice crystals in the air! Love pretty lights, don't love cold....rough trade

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