Images of sun halo in Pacific Northwest 5/09/2010. The beauty of mother nature or a warning?

Today I was enjoying the best (weather)day of 2010 so far here in the Pacific Northwest. While outside spending Mothers day on the slip-n-slide with the kids (yes, we put our swimsuits on and get wet when it hits the 60's ), I looked up as I do more and more lately to see one of the best sun halos of my life. It was huge, bright and lasted for hours.


Being an amateur photographer, I ran for my camera and did my best at photographing it. I used my hand to block the worst of the sun's rays and to preserve my prized camera. These Images were taken at about 1:30 PM in the NW corner of Washington State, on 5/09/2010 with a Nikon D40....about 25 zoom, no filter.




Title: "I can't quite put my thumb on it"








Title: "Catching the sun"











No, I do not see any hidden planets behind the sun, and no those little things you see in the one with my thumb are NOT UFO's , but a small cluster of nats buzzing above me while I lay on the grass.




While looking at the images I captured I thought of sharing them with my friends here at ATS. I know you all like to speculate about these amazing performances mother nature puts on for us. SO, what do you think?


Personally, I think that most likely it is the generic, boring explanation of ice crystals hitting the atmosphere, or something like that. You can read more about it HERE.


Then there are those that speculate it precedes a large earthquake. There are numerous reports of them being seen before and after large quakes. here is an article from Time online about it. In the article it talks about how supposedly if it has a 'backwards' rainbow where the blue points towards the sun and the red towards the horizon, it means it is a warning. I have studied these images and while I can see the red, it looks as if it fades to a lighter (either light blue or white) away from it, and then there is a deeper color between it and the sun...either a purple or very dark blue. (might just be the atmosphere) So I am on the fence with it.


There are other theories about these halos and HAARP. I found a few things on-line about this, but I just can't bring myself to provide the links because then I feel like I am supporting it, which I am not. I have to at least say something about it though, because I know it will come up.




I am sure there are many other theories out there that I have not thought of or ever heard about. Just thought it might be fun to share the pictures and maybe stir up an interesting conversation!


(If anyone wants to see these at full resolution, I will upload them to my photo album)

reply to post by westcoast


Great topic, and I mean no disrespect, but, I have been seeing these rings all my life, ok, and I am no spring chicken. It is just ice in the atmosphere, just enjoy the beauty of it!

reply to post by space cadet


Absolutely no disrespect taken!!

I have been seeing these all my life too and didn't know what they were actually called until the past few years. Today was just memorable. It is hard to tell with the picture, because although you can clearly see it, it was really much more impressive in person. I know there are a couple of posters on here that live in the same area as myself, so maybe they saw it and can chime in on how big and bright it was.

The local Seattle news mentioned it on their show tonight and included pictures. Here is that link.

Again, I believe it is also most likely nothing more than the refraction in the atmosphere, but being an ATS'er, I just gotta do it.

Excellent photo - it's not easy to capture a halo (which are actually a lot more common than people think, when you know the conditions to look for them - though usually they are quite faint.

This is probaby the best one I've managed, taken last year:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e6fab18b8107.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Essan


Cool picture! Thanks for sharing. Looks like you had a filter on? I've got one very weak filter, but it was on my other lense and I didn't think it would be enough anyways. I was really tempted to just take a shot full-on, but my camera just means too much to me.

I see these quite oftern too, especially now that I look for them This one was probably the best to date though, and I've been around for almost 40 years!!

Great shots, I think the halo is based on atmospheric and weather changes, personally. As I too have seen it on many occasions.

On another note, your prize dslr is badly needing its sensor cleaned as its got quite a few specs of dust on it, ie " dust bunnies"

Respects

[edit on 10-5-2010 by captiva]

reply to post by captiva


Thanks....if you are referring to the specs of what looks like dust in the one pic, those are actually nats. I had to lay down on my back in order to get the picture and they were flying above me. If you zoom in you can actually see thier wings.

I've seen these many times. they form with ice crystals or stuff reflecting in the atmo. I saw a halo around the moon during the ash clouds. If its a warning your looking for, just read up on Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelations. Then read the rest of the book

A dramitic halo appeared here in the Philippines so i snapped some pics. Mostly becuase i thought this was a cold weather condition as i have seen many times on cold Canadian winter days.

Phage was kind enough to stitch them together

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by The Great Day

 

It's lens flare. The closer the Sun is to the center of the frame, the closer the spot is to the Sun.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5397d291cb8e.gif[/atsimg]

and for laughs.... ______beforeitsnews/news/40/825/End_Times_Strange_Solar_Phenomenon_Strike_Fear_in_Cebu_Philippines.html

reply to post by The Great Day


Thanks for sharing the images and the link! See, I knew there was some more stuff out there. I notice the article is only a couple of days old. Wish there had been some pics with it, sounds like it was a sight!

To give you all a bit of a better perspective....this halo was so big that I had to lay on my back in order to get it all in the frame. Now, normally from this distance it is hard to see anything in the sky in a photo. Standing it probably extended from the apex of the sky to about 10% of the sky in either direction. Those two trees in the pic are about 50 feet to my left and 50 to my right...on the other side of the house. I've just never seen one take up so much of the sky. (if you look at the full image in my photo album you can see the top of my house for a size comparison) I'm sure it has happened many times over, but it was the first time I've seen it that big!

Okay, I pretty much posted this in the middle of the night, so I very selfishly bumping this up to see what my friends on the quake threads, ect. might think of it.

The last poster, The Great Day, provided an interesting link. Coincidence?

reply to post by westcoast


The pictures in my post where of the same location as the article i linked.

Yes very big halo, and what struck me as odd was this was taken in the Philippines just north of the equator. I really only thought it was a northern occurrence as a quick google search supported.

[edit on 11-5-2010 by The Great Day]

I have a picture on my camera of a sun halo when I was at Disney World Orlando on March 25, 2010. It stayed around the sun for about an hour. I did not get the whole halo in the picture however, it looked just like the ones already posted here. I will try and post the picture later today.
We had never seen a sun halo and since we do not live in Florida, we thought it was a phenomenon specific to the Florida area.
One thing that was going on earlier that day was an impressive tic-tac-toe of chemtrails/contrails, I am not sure which, in the sky most of the morning. They lingered in the sky most of the morning before dissipating in the late afternoon.

reply to post by icenine


I just saw a picture today in another news article taken up in Vancover BC on the same day, of the same halo.

I know the scientific explanation is the reflection off ice crystals in the atmosphere. I had always thought of it as a more localized event. I have seen pics taken now from both Seattle, BC and my location (right in the middle of them). I am wondering just how much of an area was under it? I mean, it WAS huge so maybe that has something to do with it, but it just seems unique.

reply to post by westcoast


You are quite good with the camera westcoast you know now i think about sun halo's never heard much of them until recently strange.

S+F better than my thread because you took the pictures let me put the stargate halo here.


Linkspaceweather.com...
God i love this pic.

Thankyou

reply to post by mars1


Thank you for the compliments!!! I just love taking pictures, and too often people don't take the time to look at the incredible world around us.

I had seen the sun halo pic on the space weather channel and was glad to see that someone had taken the time to make it thread about it. It's beautiful!!! (thanks for the link)