The photo was taken with an iPhone by Scott Calman, the observatory's IT guy (I don't know his real title). I am reasonably sure that the photo shows what may be a Update: Thanks to commenter jg for pointing me to a circumhorizon arc, which seems to be the correct name for this.
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3 comments:
Scott,
A circumzenithal arc appears almost overhead and has a pronounced smile shape. Is the perspective greatly distorted by the camera? It may be a circumhorizon arc. One of my favorite websites deals with this phenomena:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/
You can see a circumhorizon arc on this page:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/notabow.htm
And, I've bagged a couple circumzenithal's here:
http://brightstarswildomar.blogspot.com/2010/01/circumzenithal-arc-again.html
http://brightstarswildomar.blogspot.com/2009/03/ive-been-chasing-circumzenuthal-arcs.html
You are correct jg. I agree that it is most likely a circumhorizon arc.
Whoa! Look at the photo I shot from Westlake in Northeastern Ohio Saturday at about 1:00 PM EDT... Same deal!
http://bit.ly/aufj5q
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