Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. Thomas Merton

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Sundogs

The photo with the Einstein quote that I've added under the header of the blog shows an example of an optical phenomenon in the atmosphere known as a parhelion, commonly known as a sundog.




Lately I've been on a quest for sundogs. Until recently I never realized that they are a common occurrence. I've seen them numerous times in the past, but now I'm on the lookout for them almost daily. My quest began when we spotted one the afternoon we went to the Christmas tree farm to get our tree. The one we saw looked a bit like the one in the photo just below. Someone asked how they formed and I said it was the result of sunlight reflecting off of ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. I went home and did an internet search and found out all sorts of interesting things about atmospheric optics. An added bonus was all the beautiful photos accompanying the information I found.






Sundogs (parhelia) look like rainbows that get confused and form out to the sides of the sun instead of opposite it, but they aren't rainbows at all. They form when sunlight passes through plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. I found these photos on Flickr. Thanks to everyone for their beautiful photos (lucycat, matthetube, and donsutherland1, and to anyone else I might have omitted through oversight). For more information and lots of photos, check out Atmospheric Optics www.atopics.co.uk
















If you decide to go sundog spotting, be sure not to look directly into the sun. Block the sun with your hand or an object such as a chimney, light post, water tower, or the edge of a building. Here is an example of an easy way to block the sun.





I've spotted about six in as many weeks since beginning my quest. My own efforts at photographing them has not been successful. Maybe someone in the family will give me a better camera for Mother's Day or my birthday (hint, hint). Here are two of my attempts to use the camera on my cell phone to photograph a sundog at sunset. As you can see, it did not work; I just got some not-so-great sunset photos. I tried photo editing to bring out the sundog, but that didn't work either. [BTW--there really was a sundog.] A few days after this sighting, we saw a sun pillar (check out Atmospheric Optics for info) on the way to Guntersville. It was only a little earlier in the day with sun a bit higher in the sky. I didn't even try to photograph it.




Monday, January 25, 2010

Scenic North Alabama: The Huntsville Tornado, 1/21/ 2010





Viewed from Governor's Drive as it moved east behind First Baptist Church, the photo was made by the daughter of one of my husband's co-workers as she drove home from work.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

A New Year's Blessing

The LORD bless you and keep you!

The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!

The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!



New American Bible
Numbers 6:24-26



This was from one of the readings at Mass on New Year's Day. I wanted to pass it on.