Triple Sun in China (optical illusion)

How beautiful - has anyone come across this mentioned by ancient civilizations - I'd love to know how they explained them!

Anyone seen one?

The illusion, deemed a legitimate astronomical phenomenon, is created by the sun being shadowed by two smaller twins and making an image of three suns. The effect is known by experts as the 'phantom sun' and unofficially called an 'ice halo'. It generally appears at this time of year when ice crystals create high clouds.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

there are a couple threads on this already.

Damn - I thought I'd checked enough .. mods pls delete...