Impromptu Outreach

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Driving to pick my son Tom up from school this arvo, I noticed that the sun was crowned with two of the brightest Sun Dog's I'd ever seen.
Once parked I pointed them out to one of the Mum's, then another Mum, who told another Mum then the kids came out, and one of the teachers, soon everyone was looking up, saluting the sun to shade their eyes.
Both the parents and their children were eagerly asking questions about how and why. Their enthusiasm was extraordinary!
I've never seen them so long lasting either, they were still shining brightly when we arrived home 15 minutes later and only faded after my other son Jack had a look.
LOL I'm still pumped up from the experience.

[lesbehrens (Les)]

how cool. you'll be talk of the town now.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Les, I was working at iga on the night of the "Smiley Face" conjunction.
I showed my girls, taking them outside, one by one.
They loved it!!
Every customer served that night was given a mini lecture on this Astronomical event from their check out chicky.

[lesbehrens (Les)]

thats friendly service.

[adman (Adam)]

Thats amazing - I have never seen them...

Adam

[mozzie (Peter)]

well spotted jjj ive never seen one??

[Suzy]

What a treat that must have been!
I noticed the Brissy sky this afternoon looked really odd, called my daughter to come take a look at the strange cloud formation with the sun setting. The whole sky looked like cracked earth, (small squarish shapes). Never seen anything like it before.

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

Lucky you for even seeing sundogs! Must have been cold up there.

[JimmyH155]

WHAT ON EARTH IS A SUNDOG
Not the ghost of Laika, is it?????

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/...y=27&pagenum=1
They're beautiful to behold.

[Rex]

Cool jjj, must have been exciting.

[M54 (Molly)]

Wow! I've never seen that before. How beautiful.

But I have seen a rainbow that was a complete circle in the sky, set against a backdrop of dark clouds. A stunning sight!

[Paddy (Patrick)]

What a treat!

[JimmyH155]

Thanks, JJJ for that... So a sun dog is a pretty cloud (?).

"The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The Moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon SUN DOGGY seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor....etc etc

Doesn't sort of rhyme really
think I'll stick to clouds

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

No, not a cloud - they are an optical effect caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere. Looking at the page JJJ linked to, they show a full range of optical effects that you can get up there. Sun dogs are the two bright spots either side of the sun on the near-horizontal arcs going through the sun. They are usually the easiest optical effect to see.

A good site to learn about these things is Atmospheric Optics: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/ and in particular this page for sundogs: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm but the whole site is worth exploring. He has an Atmospheric Optics Pic of the day which I have bookmarked and check regularly, as its not quite daily, but you sure get to see a wide range of effects that can happen due to the atmosphere.

[h0ughy (David)]

nice going JJJ.