Mountain solar halo

Yesterday when I woke up I saw that there were good conditions for a solar halo here in the mountain area in the western part of Jämtland. I kept an eye on the sky and around 13:00 local time this halo was clearly visible for about 30 minutes. As you can see there were lots of clouds moving in and a few hour later it was cloudy.

I really like the different type of clouds surrounding the Sun, it gives more drama to the photo compared to a clear blue sky.

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Nikon D5 with Nikon AF-S 14-24 mm f/2.8
6 shot panorama 1/8000 sec. ISO 100 at f/8.0

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End of Biathlon season for me

Today I did my last day working here in Hochfilzen, Austria. It's been five amazing days with lot's of work and so much fun. Once again a big thanks to Infront Sports & Media and BMW for all the hospitality, you guys are so great to work with!

On this final day I got this solar halo over the stadium here at Biathlon Hochfilzen. Since this was my last Biathlon contest for the season I see it as a sign that it's time for me to end this and go back to shooting the sky. See you guys next season!

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Don't forget the Earth shadow

I never get tired of seeing our closest star set below the horizon. Seeing how the landscape changes as the warm light gets fainter by the minute. Every sunset has its personality depending och location, weather and season. Here in the higher latitudes we have our bright summer nights and during winter the Sun sets in the afternoon and darkness falls quite fast.

Midwinter sunset with a bright solar halo.

Another beautiful thing about a sunset is what happens right after the Sun has set. If turn around, you can slowly see the Earth shadow rising from the horizon. A low horizon is preferred to get a better view of the phenomena. 

As twilight deepens a dark blue band slowly rises upwards from the horizon. This band is the shadow of the Earth projected on the atmosphere. Above the blue shadow band you can also se a pink band called the anti-twilight arch or "Belt of Venus". The pink color comes from scattered and deeply reddened sunlight mixed with the deep blues colors of the sky.

Moonrise in Earth shadow and Belt of Venus.

The same thing happens before a sunrise. Look in the opposite direction of the rising Sun and you will see the Earth shadow sinking towards the horizon as the Sun rises.

Earth shadow is also visible before sunrise.

So next time you're watching a sunset, stay out a bit longer and don't forget to look behind you to see the Earth shadow rise.

Don't forget to look behind you after sunset.

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Historic solar halo

Here's a shot from last week showing a 22° solar halo over the old church in Oviken, Jämtland, Sweden. The old church was first built during the middle ages and was then rebuilt as it looks today in the 18th century.

Halo over the old church of Oviken, Jämtland, Sweden

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June starts off with a halo

Yesterday, on the 1st of June, this beautiful halo emerged for a couple of hours during early afternoon. I was out scouting for new photo locations when I saw that a faint solar halo started to form. I drove to this church to get a nice foreground together with the halo. This is the new church of Oviken, Jamtland, Sweden. It was built in 1903 - 1905.

Solar halo over the new church of Oviken.

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Solar and lunar halo

Earlier in March this year I took a shot of me standing in a winter landscape under a lunar halo. Last week I returned to the same spot and redid the shot, but this time during a solar halo. I didn't get the exact same angle but it was pretty close.

Solar halo

Today I've been hanging out with a beautiful reflected solar halo, the first halo for this summer season. It varied in strength throughout the day but I could never see any trace of the 46° halo or arcs. These 22° halos are quite common but for them to reflect in water they need to bee quite strong as it was today. Read more about halos at Atmospheric Optics.

Beautiful solar halo

This is a solar halo I captured a couple of weeks ago. Above the circular 22° halo you can see a wave like halo that's called a upper tangent arc. Running through the center of the Sun is a thin line called a Parhelic circle. That circle is always on the same height as the Sun and can be visible in a complete 360° circle in the sky. Just outside the 22° halo you can see two Parhelic sundogs.

It's tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere that create halos by refracting and reflecting light.



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Sun and Moon halo on the same day

Yesterday we had excellent halo conditions here over Östersund, Sweden. During the day I took a photo of the 22° solar halo. And later that night, 10 hours later, when the Moon was in the same position in the sky, I took another shot of a 22° Moon halo taken from the same position. It's quite interesting to see these two halos side by side.

The image below shows the two images merged together. This image was featured as Astronomy Photo Of the Day at NASA

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, did an article explaining the this photo and phenomena more in detail, you can read it here. The photo also appeared on Gizmodo and Peta Pixel.

Sun halo left and Moon halo right

Here are the two shots separately. The photos were taken 10 hours apart.

Sun halo taken 10:21 (UTC standard time)

Moon halo taken 20:30 (UTC standard time)

Little Solar Halo Observer

Yesterday a beautiful solar halo was visible around Östersund. Me and my son went out watch it over the frozen lake Storsjön. It was his first full circle solar halo so it was a special moment, also for his daddy :)

Things to look forward to in 2015

A new year starts today, a year filled with exciting astronomical events to look forward to. In this photo you can see the Great Lake Monster looking at a solar halo, an event we hopefully see more of during the winter ahead.

First out is comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), it will soon be visible here in northern Sweden and I'm really looking forward to see and take photos of it. It should double in brightness by mid-January 2015. This puts it just above the threshold for naked-eye visibility and makes it possible to record the comet using only a camera--no telescope required.

One of the biggest astronomical events during 2015 is the total solar eclipse on the 25th of March. In the northern Scandinavia more than 90% of the sun will be covered. To see the total solar eclipse you need to travel to Svalbard or Faroe Islands.

Another great event is the Blue Moon on July 31. A Blue Moon is when there are 2 full moons in one Month. A full moon occurs roughly every 29.5 days so on rare occasions there are two full moons in one month, then the second full moon is called a Blue Moon.

Also NASA's New Horizons will arrive at Pluto, lunar eclipse, meteor showers and more. I'll keep you posted as we're getting closer to them during the year.

Happy new year and clear skies!

Another solar halo

A couple of days ago another strong an beautiful solar halo was visible here over Östersund. I went to a large building called Arctura (Named after the star Arcturus) to capture this halo. Arctura is a hot water storage tank and it's 65 meters high, has a diameter of 27 meters and contains 26 000 000 liters of water. At the top of Arctura is a restaurant and during this day, their guests should have had a nice view over Östersund with this halo.

Solar Halo

Yesterday there was a very strong and beautiful solar halo visible over Östersund. This type of halo is known as the 22° halo and down to the left of the strong halo you can also see a trace of the very rare 46° halo. The halo looks like an eye, the eye in the sky.

You can read more about halos here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(optical_phenomenon)

Solhalo

Under eftermiddagen idag uppstod en vacker solhalo i det disiga vädret. Jag passade på att fånga fenomenet med utsikt ut över de jämtländska fjällen. Solen är verkligen på tapeten nu, för tillfället finns en enorm solfläck som jag planerar att fotografera i helgen. Den går att se med blotta genom molnslöjor, så passa på att titta upp lite då och då mot solen för att se om ni ser fläcken. Tänk på att aldrig titta mot solen med en kikare.

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Big solar halo from today. The sun is really active right now, and at the moment there is a huge sunspot showing on it's surface. I plan to photograph the sunspot this weekend, so hopefully you'll see some pictures here later.

Venus och Plejaderna

De kommande nätterna ligger Venus väldigt nära stjärnbilden Plejaderna och dom ligger som närmast varandra imorgon tisdag. Passa på att spana in detta möte i en vanlig fältkikare, en vacker syn.

Tyvärr var det lite disigt ikväll vilket gjorde att Venus starka sken tog över scenen totalt, hoppas på bättre väder imorogon. Inget ont som inte har något gott med sig, diset gav en vacker månhalo över Frösön.

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The next few night Venus is very close to the constellation Pleiades, they make a lovely view in a pair of binoculars, so get out and see it. Also a shot of a moon halo above Frösön, Sweden.