Interesting atmospheric phenomena

[Roger E. Moore]

While driving to work yesterday morning in the vicinity of Spartanburg SC, I noticed a peculiar event connected with the sunrise. After a time it became so pronounced I pulled over to the side the road to photograph it. The unenhanced photos are attached.

Before the Sun crested the distant hills, it seemed a spotlight arose from the place where the Sun would appear. The spotlight was very clear, high, and narrow, about the width of the Sun after it rose.

Someone might be able to tinker with the photos to make the spotlight stand out a little better. It was not the sunlight breaking through a hole in the clouds, but might have been sunlight reflecting off ice crystals or something like that.

Quite amazing to see. The second photo shows it better. I was wondering if there was a name for that effect.

LATER ADDS: In the photos, especially the second, you can see the light pillar more clearly if you look to the right or left of the sunrise. The pillar becomes very distinct at that point.

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[Roger E. Moore]

A light pillar, I think it was. Some photos in the Wikipedia article look just like it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pillar

[Roger E. Moore]

My favorite atmospheric phenomena are sun dogs, followed by lunar halos. I've posted about both of these elsewhere in this forum. My wife spotted a beautiful lunar halo I wasn't even aware of, as I was trying to see a tiny comet (never saw it).

[George]

A light pillar, I think it was. Some photos in the Wikipedia article look just like it.

This doesn't help much but I tried....
Roger sun pillar.jpg

[Roger E. Moore]

This doesn't help much but I tried....
Roger sun pillar.jpg

Actually, you can see the thicker part of the light pillar base. Yeah, that worked.

[Grey]

A light pillar, I think it was. Some photos in the Wikipedia article look just like it.

A sun pillar is absolutely my thought (sun pillar is just the name for a light pillar when the light source happens to be the sun).

[Roger E. Moore]

Links to pictures I posted in the weather folder on sundogs seen in upstate SC, last fall, 2018

https://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthr...14#post2462714

https://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthr...17#post2462717

https://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthr...32#post2467232

You could count this as astronomy, in a way. I'm on a planet looking at atmospheric effects created by a nearby star. There we go.

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[Roger E. Moore]

Found a photograph my wife took from our driveway of a large lunar halo late last year, I am guessing around Thanksgiving. Not sure of the time, moon was about full.

[Swift]

Nice. Always have liked sun pillars, halos, sun dogs, and similar things.

[publiusr]

This doesn't help much but I tried....
Roger sun pillar.jpg

That almost looks like an atomic test.

[Roger E. Moore]

Tried darkening it, a few other things... looks about the same as previous attempt. At least the sun pillar stands out nicely.

I never knew sun pillars existed until I actually saw it.

[DaveC426913]

Found a photograph my wife took from our driveway of a large lunar halo late last year, I am guessing around Thanksgiving. Not sure of the time, moon was about full.

There was a full moon on November 23, the day after American Thanksgiving.

Sunset, there and then was 5:17PM. Hard to tell the angle of the sun without horizon but since it looks like it's over the treetops it could have been 2 or 3 hours previous.
(Assuming it's a sunset, that is. Sunrise was 7:03AM).

[Swift]

By the way, I consider this site, Atmospheric Optics, to be one of the definitive sites on this kind of stuff and a great reference. They even have software, called HaloSim, that you can download for free, that allows you to model these things.

[Roger E. Moore]

By the way, I consider this site, Atmospheric Optics, to be one of the definitive sites on this kind of stuff and a great reference. They even have software, called HaloSim, that you can download for free, that allows you to model these things.

I'm sold.

BTW just noticed an article on that purple/green "aurora" called STEVE. Anyone ever get a photo of this or see it?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...n-steve?tgt=nr

[CJSF]

I've never seen a sun (light) pillar at sunrise, but there's no reason why not. I photographed one after sunset in Churchill a few years ago.

https://lonelybirder.files.wordpress...sun-pillar.jpg

CJSF

[George]

Tried darkening it, a few other things... looks about the same as previous attempt. At least the sun pillar stands out nicely.

Speaking of not-so-great images of cool Sun displays, though yours is actually very nice, I offer what should be the worst image of a green flash event, which I took a few weeks ago. I have never seen a green flash but just happened to think about it so I pulled out my camera while a guest at the Elks Lodge in hopes it would happen. I failed to switch to continuous shooting so I caught only the last few milliseconds. A woman shouted she saw the green flash though I didn't see it through my camera, nevertheless....

_GEO1464 Green Flash comp.jpg

[publiusr]

There is a nice book called Rainbows, Halos and Glories
https://books.google.com/books/about...d=nF84AAAAIAAJ

[Trebuchet]

I saw a quite lovely glory a few years ago from a Washington State Ferry. I think I may have posted a picture here.

[Roger E. Moore]

There is a nice book called Rainbows, Halos and Glories
https://books.google.com/books/about...d=nF84AAAAIAAJ

I was going to recommend an older book by William Corliss, a collection of strange atmospheric events illustrated nicely with line drawings. Here is the Amazon link; my copy has a different cover. The Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/05...t_bibl_vppi_i2

[publiusr]

He did i9nteresting handbooks.

[Roger E. Moore]

He did i9nteresting handbooks.

I have his books on astronomy and archaeology in addition to the weather one. Weird stuff, worth a look.

[Roger E. Moore]

A looooong, almost rainbow-like sundog seen in upstate SC this morning about 7:30 am. My wife took the photos in Mauldin. It was elongated up and down, at one point resembling a large rainbow fragment, off to the right of the rising Sun (seen through cirrus clouds). The orange arrow in the lower right points out the sundog. The reds, oranges, and blues were quite distinct. You can see, a little bit, how elongated the effect was.

[Roger E. Moore]

Very nice assortment of distorted Suns and Moons in this EarthSky article.

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essen...n-near-horizon

[publiusr]

Vortices in all their forms are hypnotic

[Roger E. Moore]

The vertical shaft of light in the sky some in Wisconsin saw Thursday evening isn't just a cool sunset, it's a 'sun pillar'

https://www.jsonline.com/story/weath...ar/4310379001/