Ice Crystal Halos

Halos on MMTO Sky Camera

Halos on MMTO Sky Camera

MMT Observatory in Arizona has an automatic all sky camera that records the sky day and night. Archived videos are available from 2006 ( 1 ). Halos are visible in these recordings (although many displays are lost to the overexposure). Here are some examples:

  • 22° halo / circumscribed halo. In the beginning possibly 9° halo ( 2 )
  • Parhelion and patches of parhelic circle starting at 15:46 ( 3 )
  • Parhelic circle starting at 13:58. Also 120° parhelion appears. The image above shows 60 seconds stacks of the display ( 4 )
  • Parhelic circle appears at 21:15 ( 5 )
  • 22° halo and some upper tangent arc, best starting at 02:00 ( 6 )

Ágnes Kiricsi, Marko Mikkilä and Mónika Landy-Gyebnár went through several months of the recordings listing the ones with halos ( 789 ). In ( 7 ) the best displays are pasted orange. Much of the MMTO Sky Camera material is still unchecked with regard to halos, certainly there are some decent displays to be found.

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