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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Chit Chat _ Odd Rainbow-in-high-fog-shadow-picture

Posted by: djellison Jan 22 2006, 08:42 PM

Helen and I were at a place called 'Symonds Yat' today - a high vantage point over a large bow in the river Wye on the border between South Wales and England.

There was an exquisit layer of fog across the whole of the valley below, for dozens of miles around.

At one point, I could cast my shadow onto the fog below, and around me, was a small rainbow. The pictures don't really do it justice, so I stretched one a little to show the effect but it was quite astonishing!

Doug

Posted by: ilbasso Jan 22 2006, 09:45 PM

Doug, I'm guessing that was a "glory."

For the uninitiated, see http://www.polarization.com/rainbow/rainbow2.html

Jonathan

PS - Doug, I saw your scores posted on EagleLander3D.com, from several years ago. I just "discovered" this lunar lander sim and am TOTALLY addicted. I just scored a 4894...

Posted by: tty Jan 22 2006, 09:48 PM

This is a phenomenon You occasionally see, particularly in mountains. It requires thet the sun is right behind You and a dense fogbank close in front.
In buddhist countries it has a particular significance since a rainbow surrounding a person is the buddhist equivalent of a halo.

There is a mountain called Emei shan in Sichuan in China which is famous for just this reason. There is a sheer drop off the top of the mountain where there is often a dense cloudbank and there You can often see such "halos".
To my mind the most notable sight was however the hundreds of death-defying Chinese rushing to the edge of a thousand feet drop and leaning out over it when the sun broke through the overcast.

tty

Posted by: djellison Jan 22 2006, 10:18 PM

Here's a bit of a pan of the view - not a great one, but I'll keep working on them later in the week. If I hadnt seen the place 'sans fog' in the past, then I'd almost have been a bit dissapointed as I know how amazing the view is - but seing this sort of view ( at only about 550ft asl ) was very very strange indead

Doug

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jan 23 2006, 01:23 AM

Doug:

It's the Brocken (or Bracken) Spectre, quite a well-known effect. The figure and halo are famous on a number of 'sacred' mountains, too. Actually, the easiest place to see it these days is from an aeroplane, when the sun and clouds line up just so. I have some aerial photos somewhere showing the same effect, except with a the shadow of a 737 in it!

It's good fun, though!

Bob Shaw