Thursday, February 12, 2009

Skywatch Friday No. 31

Hello Skywatchers!
Glad you're on board again!

We added the Followers gadget on the bottom of the page, to make it easier for you to stay on top of all things Skywatch Friday!

Want to be a Guest host, too? We have a new Page, that explains the "How To"!

Our Guest Host today: Jeannelle
Greetings, SkyWatchers! What a great honor to be a host on SkyWatch! I should think of something profound to say.......

I appreciate and enjoy the SkyWatch meme each week. It warms my heart to be able to connect even in this small way with people from all over the world, people who are joined in thought and appreciation for that which is suspended over us all......the SKY, with its kaleidescope of ever-changing scenes! Sometimes I feel very isolated out here on our farm in Iowa, USA; the internet, blogging, and SkyWatch help me feel more connected to the world!

My photo here obviously shows the early morning sun on a winter day. I chose this photo because the sun is accompanied here by two parhelia......one to each side of the sun. A parhelion is also known as a "sun dog".......that being the term I've known since childhood for this sky phenomenon, whose official scientific name I only recently learned.

Often, winter parhelia appear to be of white light, similar to the sun. The ones in this photo appear rainbow-like. Here's a bit of info from the Wikipedia page for "parhelion/sun dog" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog ): White sundogs are caused by light REFLECTED OFF of atmospheric ice crystals, while colored sundogs are caused by light REFRACTED THROUGH the crystals.

This photo was taken with a Canon PowerShot SX100. I adjusted the hue and saturation just a bit so the parhelia would show up a little better in the photo. I don't have any idea if this photo will look very good in a larger size. I know the bright sun doesn't photograph well with this type of camera......but, I really wanted to show the parhelia!

That's it......Happy SkyWatching, everyone!! Thanks always to the attentive, hard-working SkyWatch team!


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