Derby and District Astronomical Society



Optical Effects

[Gallery]



Many DDAS members captured a 22° halo around the Sun on the 29th January 2025. Here are a selection of their photos.

Credit: Dave Selfe.


Credit: Dave Selfe.


Credit: Jim Sarsgard.


Credit: Russ Pollard.


Credit: Malcolm Neal.


Credit: Anthony Southwell.


Credit: Adrian Bancroft.


Credit: Chris Callaway.




Chris Lewis captured this amazing set of halos and associated phenomena at around 10:00 am on the 17th January 2023 from Oakwood, Derby. The phenomena include a 22° halo with sun dogs embedded to the right and left, and a bright upper tangent arc at the top of the halo. A rare, supralateral arc, outside of the 22° halo, completes the spectacle.  Image Credit: Chris Lewis.



This image of a sun pillar was taken by Pete Hill on the 15th September 2021 from Seahouses, Northumberland. The setting sun was below a thick cloud bank and sunlight was being reflected off tilted ice crystals in the high cirrus. Taken with a handheld Fuji Finepix S5700 camera.  Image Credit: Pete Hill.



Peter Hill took these photos of a glory he observed at approx. 5am (UT +2) on Thursday 20th June 2019 on a flight from Longyearbyen to Oslo. They were taken with a Fuji Finepix S5700 bridge camera on auto. The sun was behind the plane just to the left side, and at 30,000+ feet was well above the clouds producing the glory by internal reflection in droplets. For more details see: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/glory.htm  Image Credit: Pete Hill.



Peter Branson captured this image of a moon dog on the 16th August 2016. It is just visible between the trees in the center of the picture, with the moon itself visible behind the trees on the right. A close up of the moon dog is shown below the main picture. The 10 second exposure was taken with a Canon EOS1100D at ISO 1600.  Image Credit: Peter Branson.



A circumzenithal arc appeared in the skies over Derby during the transit of Mercury on the afternoon of the 9th May 2016. This was accompanied by a pair of sundogs and was photographed by a number of DDAS members as seen below.
Credit: Pete Hill

Credit: Claire Spencer

Credit: Mike Dumelow

Credit: Anthony Southwell




Dave Maynard took the following pictures of a sundog over Mickleover, Derby, at 7pm on the 7th April 2015. He used a Nikon D5000 DSLR camera at f5.6 and 1/500 of a second.  Image Credit: Dave Maynard.



The following three pictures were taken by Barry Ashforth and show a parhelion that appeared over Orlando, Florida on the 16th April 2014. The top picture was taken using a Fuji FinePix JZ200/JZ210 camera and the lower two with a Nikon Coolpix S3400 camera.  Image Credit: Barry Ashforth.



Here are three images of a rare 120 degree parhelion taken by Chris Newsome on the 13th March 2014 from Ashbourne, Derbyshire. The sun dog is at a separation of 120 degrees from the sun, and if the conditions were right, they would have been at 240 degrees as well. Apparently these sun dogs are created after double internal reflections of hexagonal ice crystals in the atmosphere. The halo that the sun dog sits on, joins up with the sun (although the sunlight burns it out) and would form a perfect circle that would be parallel with the horizon. The photos were taken with a Canon 40D using a 10mm semi-fisheye lens.  Image Credit: Chris Newsome.



The following three images show a parhelion that appeared over Belper on the 30th June 2013. The first two were taken by Mike Dumelow using a Canon 1100D camera. The third picture was taken by Mike Lancaster looking over the dome of his newly completed observatory! Mike Lancaster used a Canon EOS 50D and some processing in Photoshop.  Image Credit: Mike Dumelow and Mike Lancaster.



This image of crepuscular rays was taken by Chris Newsome on the 23rd July 2008, looking west from Spondon in Derby. He used a Canon 400D camera at 100 ASA with a 40 mm lens.  Image Credit: Chris Newsome.



Chris Newsome captured this image of a sun pillar after sunset on the A515 between Buxton and Newhaven on the 10th February 2008. He used a Canon EOS 300D camera. For another view of this absolutely stunning sunset click here.  Image Credit: Chris Newsome.



This image of a sun dog was taken by Chris Newsome on the 21st October 2007 while he was in Ashford in Kent. There was only one sun dog visible at the time, to the left of the Sun. The clouds on the right prevented one appearing on the opposite side. Chris used a Canon EOS 300D camera with a 35 mm lens at f/18 and 1/500th of a second.  Image Credit: Chris Newsome.



Barry Ashforth took the following pictures of a sundog embedded in a 22° halo on the 25th May 2006 while on a canal holiday. In the first two photos he had to hide the sun with one hand (which conveniently tells you the time of day). In the third photo the sun is hidden by the cloud.  Image Credit: Barry Ashforth.

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