Starship Asterisk*

The contrails are ABOVE a thin layer of cirrus. the contrail shadow is cast downwards onto the cloud layer. Take a look at the diagram here:
https://old.atoptics.co.uk/atoptics/contr2.htm

The first thing that struck me was the slight asymmetry of the circles (wider at the top and narrower at the bottom). Coronae can be distorted in shape if there are variations in cloud droplet size. In the extreme the corona becomes disordered cloud iridescence http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/ir...

About corona formation here:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corform.htm
It's a straightforward wave diffraction effect - Nothing to do with quantum mechanics.

The explanation for these unusual pillars was posted on OPOD ( http://www.atoptics.co.uk/opod.htm ) some time ago. See this http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz193.htm page. They are produced by columnar hexagonal ice crystals drifting with their long axes horizontal. More of these pillars at - http://www.a...

The explanation for these unusual pillars was posted on OPOD ( http://www.atoptics.co.uk/opod.htm ) some time ago. See this http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz193.htm page. They are produced by columnar hexagonal ice crystals drifting with their long axes horizontal. More of these pillars at - http://www.a...

Has the vertical scale been exaggerated? This can happen with NASA images.

I think that the "Venus Effect" is due to a similar phenomenon. If there are ice crystals which are predominantly oriented horizontally then reflections would elongate the image in a vertical direction. This exact effect above has already been seen many times - It is a Venus pillar ( http...

Would the oval have anything to do with Venus being in the phase of quarter or half? This image of Venus seems to be full/circular, but it is so distant, the phases of Venus are almost indiscernable to the amateur (such as myself). No. On the scale of the ovals, Venus is acting as a point source of...

Oval Venus ( http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz196.htm ) and Jupiter ( http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz505.htm ) aureoles are an atmospheric effect. Most likely they are diffraction ( http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corform.htm ) by aerodynamically oriented ice crystals high in cirrus and altostratus cloud...

>starman0955 wrote:And you make the same mistake again. >There is no such word as "anticrepuscular".. Anticrepuscular and crepuscular are accepted meteorological terms. See the American Meteorological Society 'Glossary of Meteorology' anticrepuscular - http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glo...

This is NOT a glory. The title and caption are incorrect. It is a fogbow. A fogbow is similar to a rainbow but produced by small mist and fog droplets rather than raindrops. Significant diffraction occurs in the small droplets causing the bow to be diffuse, with weak color and multiple supernumerari...

This is NOT a glory. The explanation is incorrect. It is a fogbow. A fogbow is similar to a rainbow but produced by small mist and fog droplets rather than raindrops. Significant diffraction occurs in the small droplets causing the bow to be diffuse, with weak color and multiple supernumeraries. See...