Atmospheric - Halos
Moondogs Around the Waxing Moon
A display of moondogs (technically known as paraselenae) on either side of the waxing crescent Moon with a lunar halo and upper tangent arc, all caused by ice crystals in the thin clouds moving in this night. This is a stack of 5 exposures, all 30 seconds at f/5.6 with the 20mm Sigma lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 1000, taken from home.
A display of moondogs (technically known as paraselenae) on either side of the waxing crescent Moon with a lunar halo and upper tangent arc, all caused by ice crystals in the thin clouds moving in this night. As a bonus, the Space Station (ISS) appeared for a brief time rising out of the southeast but quickly disappearing into the Earth’s shadow as it approached the Moon. This is a stack of 3 exposures, all 20 seconds at f/2.8 with the 20mm Sigma lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 400, taken off the back deck from home.
A single bright moondog to the left of the waning gibbous Moon, located on a 22° ice crystal halo around the Moon, but only a partial one visible only where the clouds are.. This was November 4, 2020. The Moon was in Taurus.
Solar Halo over the Churchill Rocket Range
A display of sundogs and a 22° halo around the Sun, with a lower tangent arc visible at the bottom of the halo, an effect visible only when the Sun is high enough in the sky, as it is here around spring equinox. This is from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre and is overlooking the old Rocket Range.
Glory Effect Around Aircraft Shadow
The Glory diffraction effect around the shadow of the Dash 8 aircraft on the flight from Calgary to Abbotsford at Christmas 2019. The Sun is reflected in the engine cowling, so you see both the source of the light (indirectly) and the shadow cast by the light, and the Glory effect around the shadow opposite the Sun. Shot with the iPhone 8.
A rare sight from home in rural Alberta — a sky filled with light pillars, an atmospheric phenomenon caused by flat ice crystals in the still air, reflecting the lights below, in this case from farms and gas plants, and from towns in the distance. I had never seen these from home before; they are more common within cities with the greater abundance of lights. The effect was short-lived. It was fading out even 15 minutes after I took this. There was just enough icy haze or fog (it had snowed earlier in the day so the air was moist) to produce the light pillars but not so much as to obscure the stars. The Big Dipper is at left; Polaris is at top left; Auriga, Taurus and the Pleiades are rising at right. The red foreground is from lights on my deck. This is a 4-section panorama with the Venus Optics 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 3200 for 20 seconds each. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
A 22° solar halo with sundogs and an upper tangent arc, on a day with the air filled with tiny ice crystals, some of which appear like stars and out of focus spots in the sky here.
A halo around the nearly Full Moon (two days past full) over the Barent’s Sea in northern Norway at a latitude of 71° North on November 5, 2017 from the cruise/ferry ship m/s Nordlys. The Moon is in Taurus — Orion is rising at left, Auriga is at top, with Gemini to the right.
An ice crystal halo around the waxing gibbous Moon, March 7, 2017, with the Moon below the twins stars of Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Orion is at lower right, Auriga at upper right, Leo at left. Sirius is the bright star above the trees. This is a stack of four exposures (10 second, 1 second, 1 second, 1/15 second, and 1/125 second) to preserve the sky and bright Moon, layered and blended with luminosity masks applied with ADP Panel Pro. Shot with the 12mm Rokinon fish-eye lens at f/2.8 and Nikon D750 at ISO 800.
An ice crystal halo around the Full Moon on solstice eve, June 19, 2016, from Driftwood Beach at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. Mars is the bright object at far right, Saturn is just right of the Moon. The iconic Prince of Wales Hotel is below Mars. This is a 3 panel vertical panorama, each panel with the 20mm Sigma lens at f/4 for 5 seconds at ISO 800. Stitched in ACR.
Lunar halo in a hazy sky at Red Rock Canyon, Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, with the Full Moon over Mt. Blakiston. This is a high-dynamic range stack of 6 exposures, to avoid the area around the Moon from blowing out too much while recorded detail in the dark foreground. All with the 20mm lens and Nikon D750.
Solar Halo over Natural Bridge, Yoho (v2)
A vertical panorama of a 22° solar halo in the sky over the Natural Bridge and waterfall on the Kicking Horse River in Yoho National Park, BC, June 6, 2016. The day was quite hot but this shows that you can get haloes even on a hot summer day, as the ice crystal clouds causing the halo are high up and cold! The Natural Bridge itself is in the foreground. This is a 4-section panorama taken with the 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens mounted in landscape mode, and moved vertically to sweep up the scene. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
Solar Halo over Churchill Rocket Range
A display of ice crystal haloes over the Churchill Rocket Range, Feb. 9, 2016. The Sun is surrounded by the main 22° halo with extended and colourful sundogs or parhelia on either side of the Sun. The top of the 22° halo is adorned by the upper tangent arc. A fainter outer 46° halo is also visible with a dim circumzenithal arc at its upper point. A faint circumhorizontal arc also extends through the Sun and sundogs parallel to the horizon. The display is caused by nearby ice crystals which are visible as starlike points in the sky. See http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/unusual.htm The scene is the old abandoned Churchill Rocket Range, near Churchill, Manitoba. This is a 5-exposure handheld stack of exposures for a high dynamic range composite, merged with Adobe Camera Raw. The lens was the 15mm full-frame fish-eye on the Canon 6D.
A classic 22° ice crystal halo around the waning crescent Moon, here overexposed, with the Moon between Jupiter and Mars in the morning sky on December 5, 2015. Seeing a halo around a crescent Moon is somewhat rare as they usually require the brighter light of the Full Moon. Venus is the brightest object at bottom closest to the horizon. The three planets, along with the stars Spica (above Venus) and Regulus (at top of frame) define the line of the ecliptic here in the dawn late autumn / early winter sky. I captured this scene from southeast Arizona near the Arizona Sky Village at Portal. This is a stack of 4 exposures from long to short (8s to 1/2s) to encompass the great range in brightness and not overexpose the crescent Moon too much. Images were layered in Photoshop and masked with luminosity masks. Automatic HDR techniques did not work well as the shortest image was too dark for ACR to find content to register in Merge ot HDR, and in Photoshop the HDR Pro module left visible edge artifacts. The camera was on the iOptron Sky Tracker to follow the sky and register the sky for all the exposures, thus the slightly blurred ground. Taken with the Canon 6D and 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens.
Lunar Halo and the Ecliptic (with Labels)
A classic 22° ice crystal halo around the waning crescent Moon, here overexposed, with the Moon between Jupiter and Mars in the morning sky on December 5, 2015. Seeing a halo around a crescent Moon is somewhat rare as they usually require the brighter light of the Full Moon. Venus is the brightest object at bottom closest to the horizon. The three planets, along with the stars Spica (above Venus) and Regulus (at top of frame) define the line of the ecliptic here in the dawn late autumn / early winter sky. I captured this scene from southeast Arizona near the Arizona Sky Village at Portal. This is a stack of 4 exposures from long to short (8s to 1/2s) to encompass the great range in brightness and not overexpose the crescent Moon too much. Images were layered in Photoshop and masked with luminosity masks. Automatic HDR techniques did not work well as the shortest image was too dark for ACR to find content to register in Merge ot HDR, and in Photoshop the HDR Pro module left visible edge artifacts. The camera was on the iOptron Sky Tracker to follow the sky and register the sky for all the exposures, thus the slightly blurred ground. Taken with the Canon 6D and 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens.
A lunar corona created by diffraction effects from ice crystals or water droplets in thin, low, fast-moving clouds, on a cold winter night, after a snowstorm with the skies clearing. See http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/cormoon.htm for details of the phenomenon. This is an HDR stack of 7 exposures, from 0.4 to 6 seconds, plus an added 1/50 sec shot for the lunar disk. Shot from home with the 135mm telephoto at f/8 and Canon 6D at ISO 100.
The bright gibbous Moon over the Elbow River in Kananaskis Country in southern Alberta, on a hazy autumn night, September 2015. The Moon is surrounded by some coloured corona rings from diffracton fom droplets in the clouds. The stars are trailed because of the stacking of many exposures. This is an HDR stack of 9 exposures from 45 seconds to 1/5 second merge in Photoshop with HDR Pro utility.
A panorama of the flower-filled Blakiston Valley on a moody moonlit cloudy night at Waterton Lakes National Park, June 24, 2015. The Big Dipper is at upper right, with its handle pointing to Arcturus at left of centre. Spica is at far left. A subtle halo surrounds the first quarter Moon which has just set behind Crandell Mountain at left. This is a 9-segment panorama with the Nikon D750 and 24mm lens, mounted portrait, and stitched with Photoshop using spherical geometry and corrected with Wide Angle Adaptive Lens Correction to straighten the scene. Liberal use of Highlight and Shadow recovery in ACR and Shadows and Highlights in PS brought out the flower-filled foreground while retaining detail in the bright sky. Each segment was 30 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 1600.
Lunar Halo over Blakiston Valley
A partial lunar halo around the first quarter Moon over the flower-filled Blakiston Valley on a moody moonlit cloudy night at Waterton Lakes National Park, June 24, 2015. This is a 4-segment panorama with the Nikon D750 and 24mm lens, mounted portrait, and stitched with Photoshop and corrected with Wide Angle Adaptive Lens Correction to straighten the scene. Liberal use of Highlight and Shadow recovery in ACR and Shadows and Highlights in PS brought out the flower-filled foreground while retaining detail in the bright sky. Each segment was 30 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 1600.
Sundogs Around the Setting Sun
Sundogs and a small light pillar around the setting Sun, Feb 21, 2015, from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, Churchill, Manitoba. I shot this through the window of the upstairs classroom! It was -32° C with a brisk wind outside - witness the flags at right. At left is an old launch tower from the Rocket Range.
An ice crystal halo around the first quarter Moon high in the northern winter sky, on January 27, 2015, taken from near Pinos Altos, New Mexico. The Pleiades is above and left of the Moo, the Hyades and Aldebaran at left. The green Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is on the lunar halo at top. This is a stack of two exposures, a 13 second exposure for the sky and halo and and 0.8 second exposure for the Moon itself, though it remains overexposed. However, its intensity is reduced by blending in the area of the Moon taken with a short exposure, with masking done via a luminosity mask. Both image with a 24mm lens at f/2.5 and Canon 6D at ISO 800 to minimize trailing on this tripod shot.
Lunar Halo Around the Full Moon
A 22° around the Full Moon in a sky of high cirrus clouds and contrails. Shot with the 14mm lens and Canon 6D for 20 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 400. The Moon sits above Orion in the winter sky. Orion is at bottom in the halo.
Halo Around the Moon (Dec 1, 2014)
An ice crystal halo around the waxing quarter Moon, Dec. 1, 2014, taken from New Mexico. This is a 30-second exposure at f/2.8 with the 14mm lens and Canon 6D at ISO 400, with the bright area around the Moon itself masked and made from 3 shorter exposures to lower the intensity of the centre of the halo. The altitude of the Moon was 62° and the halo shows a split appearance on the east and west sides from what is called a circumscribed halo adding to the normal 22° halo.
Lunar Halo & Contrail at CNSC (Feb 9, 2014)
An ice crystal lunar halo around the gibbous Moon, with an aircraft jet contrail shooting across the scene, with a jet at far right, heading west in a polar flight over Churchill, Manitoba. Taken from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, Feb. 9, 2014 with the 10-22mm lens and Canon 60Da.