Was this a parhelic rainbow?
It appeared briefly around the sun over a small village on the East coast of Scotland, yesterday, 7th June 2009.
The arc was variable in length, centered on the sun (which is bleached out), on a windy day with a strong weather front just inland.
Clouds of varying density were passing across the sun. Only once did this rainbow-next-the-sun appear.
I remember the colours as being rather stronger than they appear in the pic - I pressume the camera could not cope with the brightness.
I've heard of circumsolar rings, but the pics I have seen always show them as white.
I find this phenomenon described as a "parhelic rainbow" - does it have a diferent cause than sundogs and halos?
[img][IMG]http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9776 ... 002.th.jpg[/img][/img]
JOhn
PS the image should be viewed in 'portrait' mode, with the rainbow uppermost.
![[IMG]http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9776 ... 002.th.jpg[/img]](http://img268.imageshack.us/my.php?image=parhelicrainbow002.jpg){kind=link}