Thanks to Candy Doyle for these two shots of sun optics taken in the past few days.
The first picture is s sun pillar, a shaft of sunlight seen when the sun is low in the sky, caused by reflection of the sunlight by the sides of the columnar ice crystals falling with their long axes horizontal.
Sun Pillar
The second is a sun dog, a colored spot often called a second sun at the same angular elevation of the sun. It is caused by the sun's rays refreacted by ice crystals in the clouds.
Sun Dog Photos by Candy Doyle
