This picture shows the top of the inner halo at the bottom of the picture, with the upper tangent arc and the Parry arc in the middle and the circum-zenithal arc at the top.
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by Gill Smith
I was walking above Ashberry on Friday February 9th, just opposite Rievaulx Abbey, when I happened to look up at the sky to see the most amazing display of haloes and sun-dogs I have ever seen. In addition to the common 22° halo and sun-dogs there was a practically complete outer 46° halo which was very brightly coloured (like an inside-out rainbow) together with some more unusual arcs which I have since discovered were a circum-zenithal arc, an upper tangent arc and a rare Parry arc, and a white, not coloured, parhelic circle.
Unfortunately I did not have a good camera with me, but I managed a couple of shots:
This picture shows the top of the inner halo at the bottom of the picture, with the upper tangent arc and the Parry arc in the middle and the circum-zenithal arc at the top.
This photo shows the top of the outer halo and the brightly coloured circum-zenithal arc curving back upwards.
If you are interested in exploring this further there is a fascinating site at http://www.atoptics.co.uk/yhal/yorkhal.htm written by Les Cowley. He has a program (which you can download) to simulate haloes, and has produced this wonderful diagram. He has pages on other haloes, rainbows and other interesting sky phenomena on his site.
© Ryedale Natural History Society 2001
You might also be interested in my impression of the 1999 total solar eclipse, which I was lucky enough to observe in Austria.
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