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Royal Halos

Halos over the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London.   Imaged by Simon Lericque with an 8mm fish-eye lens.

The sun is shielded by the bronze effigy of winged victory.   Surrounding it is a weak 22° halo and the upper part of a circumscribed halo.  The white parhelic circle passes through the sun and encircles the sky at its altitude.  There are traces of white 120° parhelia.

Her Majesty is not amused.


Images ©Simon Lericque, shown with permission









The parhelic circle is generated by plate crystals and also by columns in singly oriented and Parry orientations.  

Parts near the sun come mostly from a single external reflection from a near vertical crystal facet.  With increasing sun distance, more complicated ray paths become important.