Optical phenomena

wikipictures on Instagram: “Glory (optical phenomenon) ty @languidd for putting me onto an optical deep dive (more of these posts to follow). go follow them, their…”

Rare optical phenomena known as high altitude solar halos. ~Photo by Steve Gettle

The subject of legends, mirages are nature’s version of optical illusions. Learn about nine types of mirages, and how, why, and where they occur.

Red sprites and blue jets are very high altitude upper atmospheric phenomena associated with thunderstorms. They have only recently been documented on camera. Red sprites are massive (as big as 20 km in size), but faint luminous flashes that appear directly above an active thunderstorm and coincide with powerful lightning strikes. Blue jets too are a high altitude optical phenomenon, but are different from sprites. They were first documented in 1994. Blue jets are optical ejections from the…

This is not my first attempt to capture a sun dog though I think this is one of my better ones. Saturday's blizzard died down at just the right time and it made for and incredible sunset. The wind was quite strong during the capture of this image.

optical illusion

Crown shyness is a naturally occurring phenomenon in some tree species where the upper most branches in a forest canopy avoid touching one another. The visual effect is striking as it creates clearly defined borders akin to cracks or rivers in the sky when viewed from below. Although the phenomenon was first observed in the 1920s, scientists have yet to reach a consensus on what causes it. According to Wikipedia it might simply be caused by the trees rubbing against one another, although…

Mirages and other atomospheric optic phenomena

Fata Morgana is a rare and complex optical phenomenon in the atmosphere, consisting of several forms of mirages, in which distant objects are seen repeatedly and with various distortions. It got its name in honor of the sorceress - the character of the English legends of the Fairy Morgana.