Fire and Ice.

[Mick]

Hi all,

Yesterday I left home at 3:30am to travel two hours to Burton Downs Coal Mine in the central highlands of Qld, I had a good days work ahead of me so I needed an early start. It was a very hot day and around 11:00am I was laying under the excavator that I was working on and happened to look up to see the most amazing 22 deg Sun halo I've ever seen. The colours were intense and vivid and the show lasted for a good 45 minutes, with the halo fading and bursting back into life every minute or so. Using the boom of the machine to shield the sun you could see the halo encircle the entire sun. Where's a camera when you need one, it's amazing the things you see when you least expect to. I made it home around 6:30pm tied but pleased to have witnessed the unexpected fire and ice display.

[matt]

That's a fantastic observation Mick and testament to the value of looking skywards, even during the day!;)

Nice of you to share it with us too. I reckon it's sometimes easy to forget what's there during the daylight hours as well. Thanks for the reminder that the dance never ends:nerd:

[Robert_T]

Hi Mick, do you reckon this was purely and atmospheric effect or is it possible that coal dust in the lower atmosphere was part of the picture ... :confuse3:


cheers,

[Mick]

Hi Robert and Matt, I was a way from the pit so I don't think coal dust played a part, there was a very high wispy cloud which is probably the reason for the halo. Following is a link to some info about Atmospheric halos if you are interested.

Atmospheric halos (http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/halo/common.htm)