OPOD OPOD - Season of mists and fogbows

"Now is the Season of Mists and mellow fruitfulness.. ..and also of fogbows, close bosom-friends of the maturing sun" - to paraphrase Keats. Atmospheric optics expert Michael Ellestad shows in these shots that the Autumnal sun is not necessary.
©Michael Ellestad, shown with permission.

Michael generated the fogbow on a misty night using a car headlamp. Block the light from the second headlamp and look or point the camera along the remaining single beam in the direction away from the headlamp. Do not do this on or near a public road.

At right a secondary fogbow is visible outside the bright primary.

inside the primary there is a dark space and then a supernumerary. Fogbow primaries show only faint colour or none at all but the supernumeraries have stronger hues.

Freshly formed fog or mist is the best to reveal the supernumeraries for they require the fog droplets to have similar sizes. As a fog ages its droplet size distribution broadens by collisions and further condensation.