Circle 'Round the Sun in Water Canyon

Yesterday, when out hiking in nearby Water Canyon (before the Super Bowl), MOH and I slowly (at least for me) made our way up a variably steep, grassy to rocky hillside until we came to a large rib of quartzite. While standing there admiring the many geological and other features of the rib (including quartz veins, fractures and joints, bright greenish yellow lichen patches, and packrat middens), I noticed that a nice circle (22° halo) had formed around the sun. I moved into position behind the towering quartzite rib and shot a picture or two. The best one (which is enhanced to match the way it looked on the camera, which is the way it looked IRL except for the high contrast or excessive darkness of the foreground, where my eyes could see better than the camera) is shown above. You can also see just a bit of the bright greenish yellow lichen on the quartzite, barely shining through the camera-darkened foreground.

The lichen, also with a more common dark gray to black or dark brown variety and a pale green variety, can be seen better in this photo showing the same quartzite outcrop, although here I've moved over a little to the right to center the photo on a tall, narrow cleft formed along a couple parallel fractures or joints, possibly a small fault zone.

I immediately walked into the fracture so I could turn around and take this picture looking back to the north. The white bands in the center of the brownish quartzite, slanting shallowly to moderately to the right, are several of a complicated quartz vein set that are no doubt saying something about the stress regime during the time of their formation.

Twelve Months of LFD (2012)

I missed this retrospective meme last year, but here it is, back again, as per DrugMonkey:

The rules for this blog meme are quite simple.
-Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.
I originally did this meme, after seeing similar posted by Janet Stemwedel and John Lynch.  Prior editions include 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.

Previous takes on this Twelve Month meme at LFD were posted for 2008, 2009, and 2010. As usual for LFD, I've also added the accompanying first photo of the month, where there was one with the first post of the month.

January:
I went on my first walk of the year earlier today, out along a creek in Anchorage, AK.

February:
I thought I'd back up to a time a week before our stop at The Geographic Center of Nevada, a time just prior to our soak at Spencer Hot Springs. 

March:Upon getting out of the truck at the north end of the Monitor Valley playa, it became rapidly clear to me that it was very cold. 

April:
I thought I'd actually have time over my 5-day break to get caught up on some blogging, but that hasn't been the case, and things aren't looking all that great for the coming 8- or 9-day work week and the break following that, so I'm posting a few views from the new area.

May:
Just a quick post showing a photo I took about two weeks ago at 5:50 am, on my early morning ride to work. 

June:
Yesterday I received an email while at work telling me that there was a hummingbird moth in one of our two pots of chocolate mint, which are sitting outside on the front porch. 

July:
These stitched photos were taken about three weeks ago near the site of Preble (just off the map to the west).

August:
These relatively small pinnacles are located in the canyon of Midas Creek, just north of the town of Midas, Nevada.

September:
Besides the obvious greenish feldspar, the countertop rock is composed of black pyroxene, gray metallic minerals (magnetite or ilmenite are likely, but I didn't bring my magnet, magnetometer, or portable xrf), and pyrite.

October:
In the morning after I wake up—while I'm drinking my first, second, and maybe third cup of coffee—I often think of things to write for the blog, how to write them, maybe even what pictures to use.

November:

I got to thinking after taking another looking at my arc photos, that this shot may show a weak tangent arc above the also weak 22 degree halo around the sun.

December:
We came in from the east or north, depending on how you view the direction of I-80 as it traverses the entire north-south length of the west flank of the Humboldt Range from Florida Canyon to Limerick Canyon northeast of Lovelock.

Tangent Arc?

I got to thinking after taking another looking at my arc photos, that this shot may show a weak tangent arc above the also weak 22 degree halo around the sun.

Possible tangent arc with circumzenithal arc above, also showing left sundog and weak 22 degree halo.

Photos were enhanced as described in my circumzenithal arc post; lower photo is two photos stitched together. Better sundogs and halo can be seen in the circumzenithal post.

Circumzenithal Arc

Driving back from work the other day, Sunday October 28 to be precise, I noticed a bright sundog on the right side of the sun as we came around the corner at Button Point. I looked straight overhead, hoping to see a Kern arc, and there was the so-called circumzenithal arc, which does not make a complete circle around the zenith. When I got home, I ran in, grabbed my camera, took one quick shot of a fairly faded arc before the batteries died and before the arc faded almost completely in fickle cirrus clouds. After changing the batteries, and after the arc came back a couple minutes later, I took the above photo, where the arc is still faint.

By the time I took this picture, two sundogs had formed on opposite sides of the sun (the right one is not visible behind a building to the right; the left one is the bright, washed out spot on the left), and a nice halo had started to develop.

Unenhanced circumzenithal arc looking straight up.

I repeatedly looked straight overhead to see if the rare Kern arc, which completely circles the zenith, would develop. One never did.

Circumzenithal arc looking straight up, somewhat enhanced.

A view of just the circumzenithal arc.

A zoomed in view of the same arc, taken a moment later.

The halo around the sun continued to develop.

Halo mimics the shape of the tree.

Sundog to the left of the sun.

The sun was fairly low in the sky between 4:32 and 4:47 pm PST when I took these photos; it was probably between 10 and 15 degrees above the horizon, a little lower than the ideal 22 degrees.

The following day, I ran outside with my Brunton at about 4:50 pm to measure the sun angle, which was at 10 degrees above the horizon. The days are getting shorter by only 1 to 2 minutes each day, with minimal time difference in sunset between the two days in question, so the sun was probably at 10 degrees or slightly higher.

In fact, photos in which the ground isn't cropped out show that the height of the sun above the horizon is less than half of the 22 degree halo around the sun, although some distortion by the camera cannot be ruled out.

All photos except the one described as unenhanced, were enhanced by increasing color saturation and contrast, and by adjusting the brightness up or down as needed. They were then exported to a smaller size (1000px long dimension). After export, they were minimally sharpened to diminish blurriness imparted during export.

The first two photos both consist of two photos that were stitched together and cropped prior to enhancement, export, and sharpening. My semi-wide angle lens won't show a circumzenithal arc and the lower part of the sky in one shot.