Ice Crystal Halos

Halo display in Himos on the night of 2/3 February

Halo display in Himos on the night of 2/3 February

On the evening and night of 2-3 February 2009, I was testing my new HID-spotlight that I finally got earlier on that same day. What would be better place for testing than nearby Himos ski resort in Jämsä, Finland. After being there for a few hours and seeing nothing but 22° halo with my lamp, I decided to go home. Luckily, at the same time, the sky started to clear and I first saw a half moon and Parry arc on that. Then I noticed also 46° halo and quickly took a few pictures and started heading back closer to Himos where I found a place to set up my camera and lamp. I stayed on that same location all the time, because there was some wind and things may change quickly.

Lamp elevation was about 2 or 3 degrees. Haloes were supralateral arc, parhelic circle, Wegener, subhelic, suncave Parry, Parry supralateral, 46°halo, Tricker, Greenler, “Ounasvaara arc” ( 1 ) (first observed by Marko Riikonen -07) and more. Temperature was between -7 to -10 C. See a few pictures and videos ( 2 ).

6 comments

  • Yes very sharp indeed. I was outside tonight doing some snow gun halos and for parhelia and nice pillars. My first homemade halos. Something everyone has been wondering when I was going to get done which I was able to GIT R DONE.

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  • Good catch! The Moon display is also fine (for a 50% illuminated Moon), but yeah, lamp display is again something else. Very nice display. Maybe one of the last ones of the season.

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  • Congratulations, Mika! Really nice catch. And Michael, I’m really glad you could start experimenting with halo making. I’m sure you’ll get some pretty good displays in the future.

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  • Yeah I Agnes I hope to but so far I got pillars parhelia and when light was below horizon I got subparhelia with possible reflected lowitz hard to tell but When air compressor is moved outside I will have the paint gun autofed from a 5 gal pail.

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