Abstract
I INCLOSE a sketch of a remarkable solar halo and parhelia which I observed here on the 22nd ult. As I happened to have facilities at hand, I was enabled to take the dimensions and position of the various features of the phenomenon with sufficient accuracy. These appearances were first seen by me at 9.30 A.M., and continued nearly constant in brilliancy till about 10 A.M., when they gradually faded, and at 10.30 hardly anything was visible except the outer ring, a b e f g, which continued till 1 P.M. At 9.45 the inclosed sketch was made and the measurements taken. The sun had then an altitude of about 30°, and was very misty and indistinct. It was surrounded by an ordinary solar halo of about 45° diameter; and through the sun passed another perfectly unbroken circle whose centre was exactly at the zenith. This circle had no colour and was similar in character to the ordinary concentric solar halo; its angular diameter was 120°; concentric with this was another circle of 78° diameter. This inner circle was not quite perfect at the point where the circle, a b e d, touched it; it was slightly distorted, and through the same point (d) passed a portion of another circle of larger radius, j k. The junction of these three circles formed a beautiful spectrum, and was the most brilliant part of the whole phenomenon. The inner circle was also imperfect on the side opposite the sun, when it branched off in two opposite curved tails, which, crossing the outer circle at the same spot, g, formed a mock sun. Two other mock suns were to be seen at e and f, 50° to each side of g. These three mock suns were all colourless, but at a and b, not on the concentric halo, but about 2° outside it, were two beautifully coloured mock suns, each being a perfect spectrum.
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GRUBB, H. Solar Halo. Nature 20, 628 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/020628a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/020628a0
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