Monday, May 30, 2011

As Close to Heaven As I've Ever Been

On Friday, my sister Michelle stepped outside and witnessed something spectacular right in her back yard.



This is called cloud iridescence (not to be confused with a rainbow, apparently).


And that's not all she observed. In the same sky, she captured a "sun dog."


("Sun dog" is obviously not the scientific name. Sorry, but I'm not smart enough to explain the phenomena.)

It's a ring around the sun (or the moon).



I Googled this stuff and didn't see a single photo as good as Michelle's.

Incredible, huh?

Maybe heaven did come a little closer to earth recently!


Today (Memorial Day in the United States) I am grateful.

17 comments:

  1. sun dogs are when the sun's light is shone through (and separated into separate component colours) ice crystals in the air. the ice crystals act like a prism to do that. i've seen them when it's ugly cold and clear outside. the water in the air crystallizes and creates the sun dog phenomenon, usually seen as arcs around the sun. i've never seen them in summer though.

    the cloud thing is awesome!

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  2. Those are fantastic photos of the beautiful colors in the sky. I'm sure it was even prettier than the photos show though. It's hard to capture all the beauty sometimes.

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  3. Beautiful! I've never heard of these before! Have a great week.

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  4. How lucky for us that Michelle got those wonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. I've seen many photos of rainbows, but nothing comes to close to the clarity captured here - well done!

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  6. Great photos!

    I'd never heard of that before, but I hope to see it one day...soon!

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  7. I've never seen anything like this! The photos are beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

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  8. This is beautiful! I have never seen a sky like this....You should be happy that you captured it! Happy Memorial Day too....

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  9. That is incredible! I've never seen anything like it.

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  10. Those photos are gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  11. The rainbow clouds (not the sun halo type) have also been associated with HAARP induced energy transfer for the purpose of weather modification. Just saying...

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  12. I have seen sun dogs before, but I remember the cold winter morning I first saw one. It looked like the sun had split into three. Everyone at the bus was talking about it. This web site has a big collection of various ice halos and good explanations.
    http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/cha2.htm

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  13. WOW!!! Those are AMAZING! What a spectacular gift to behold!

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