Friday, February 20, 2009

Sundogs

How I managed to live (mumble, mumble) years being unaware of sundogs, I'm not sure.



It's been two years since I first saw one (and wrote about it), and I've seen dozens since.



But I still haven't managed to get a good photo of one.

I see them more often in winter, especially when driving south late in the afternoon. (AL-75S gives great sundog.)

No use trying to race them home, though. They're slithery, and don't hang around for portraits.

Here's a nice, simple page with a good sundog photo, as well as other atmospheric phenomena. Here is the definitive page on the science behind the "why" of all the optics.

-----

The latest I and the Bird is up over at The Birder's Report. Go see!

12 comments:

countrypeapie said...

Thanks for the links -- I hadn't heard of most of those optical effects. On the lookout for a fogbow....

Craig Glenn said...

Cool, those are real, always thought it was a side effect of something I drank! LOL

Just kidding great info!

Craig

robin andrea said...

What a great link. I see crepuscular rays quite often on the bay. I had no idea there was a name for it. Great sundog photo.

R.Powers said...

I shall be picturing slithery sundogs in my mind today.

Pamela said...

so excited when I see one here, too.

Anonymous said...

I think I probably saw sun dogs all of the time but never really thought much about them until I learned they had a name. And I think the first time I heard the term was on an old episode of Star Trek. I watched for the green flash when I was in the Caribbean some years ago but was disappointed.

Anonymous said...

The best sundog I never saw was just north of Huntsville, Al. My parents saw it in NW Georgia and told me about it. At the time I was under the little trailer I lived in, winterizing it.

Pablo, I saw the green flash in Hawaii. I have looked many times since but never again.

Anonymous said...

I just learned what the Sundog term was a few months ago! Bravo for sure!

Gail said...

Love the term! Your photos are beautiful....gail

cyndy said...

very strange, I came to your page today to look up the atmospheric optics stuff because I remembered that you had posted about them a long time ago, and wanted to see if you still had the link on your sidebar.

I took a picture of one of my hens earlier today...she had an interesting looking "optic" near her feet ;-)

OH- thanks for the link!

andycat01 said...

Sundogs are part of our weather lore here in southern Saskatchewan. We usually see them in the late afternoon on a still winter day. They are on each side of the sun. To us they signify that tomorrow will be bitterly COLD--somewhere less than -30'C.

andycat01 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.