Two Sun Dogs in the sky.

Whilst driving home last night, Helen noticed a familiar, but not often seen sight in the sky....
.... a Sun dog.!

These subtle patches of brightness can appear at anytime of year, though usually in Pembrokeshire, January, July and August seem to be the times that I have mostly noticed them.

The sun dogs are produced by a dance between sunlight and ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Those ice crystals act like prisms and re-scatter the sunlight into the colourful light show you can see in the above photograph.

Usually I only ever see the one sun dog, but opposite and equidistant, if you are lucky, you will find another one.

I have spotted a single sun dog on several occasions, but yesterday seeing both together was amazing.

We have Sun dogs, noctilucent clouds, rainbows, Sunsets, Sunrises, Moonrises and Moonsets, plus countless other day and night time naked eye wonders.

It just goes to show that you don't always need telescopes to enjoy the heavens above.

Clear Skies

Mark

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Pembrokeshire Astronomer

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