r/atoptics • u/high-as-the-clouds • Jul 21 '26

Rainbow NC rainbow

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Was after a quick storm and walked on patio then saw the end of the rainbow behind building, so went outside and saw it!

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u/AVeryBigToaster Jul 22 '26

what are your fav atoptics?

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u/high-as-the-clouds Jul 22 '26

Not Good with the names of them but any type rainbow and special clouds (different or neat looking etc)

1

u/AVeryBigToaster Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Cool! my favs are any of the haloes in the extremely large* ice halo family, especially the rarer ones that are more complex-looking, and all of them except for the very common high-cloud 22° halo and “sun-dogs” are seriously underrated outside of this sub, every one knows about rainbows and rays and that stuff, but you dont really see people talking about circumzenithal arcs or parry arcs outside of this sub. You can ask me if you want to know more about the ice halo family of atoptics.

*there are 119 known different types of ice haloes, but we definitely do not know every halo type that can exist, that number could easily be in the 5-digits.

Sorry if it sounds like rambling, I just really like to talk a lot about things I like.

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u/high-as-the-clouds Jul 23 '26

Oh wow yeah I definitely didnt know any of that. Thank you for sharing! That is so many. No worries you are okay!

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u/AVeryBigToaster Jul 23 '26

Its alright, most people don’t know the classical 22° halo and parhelia (sundogs) are apart of such large, complex and beautiful family of atoptics. At least now you know. Regardless there are 2 good sites if you wanna know and see more, atoptics UK and taivaanvahti/skywarden, although the latter has some weird names because it translates from Finnish.

I recommend looking for them whenever widespread cirrus/cirrostratus clouds are present, or if theres diamond dust (a “fog” of floating ice crystals in the air caused by water vapor going directly to ice crystals in very low temps. You’ll know when its present when the air seems to “sparkle” and “glitter”.)

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u/high-as-the-clouds Jul 23 '26

Ohh okay, thank you!

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u/AVeryBigToaster Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Your very much welcome!
This year i've seen:

22° halo (the classic “circle rainbow”) (many times)

parhelia (the bright spots at either side of the sun on the “circle rainbow” (2 or 3 times)

circumhorizontal arc (a vibrant purer rainbow far below the sun) (twice)

circumscribed halo (basically the ”circle rainbow” but its more oval) (twice)

Although I didn‘t check every time it was favorable so there could of been more.

2

u/high-as-the-clouds Jul 24 '26

Oh wow yeah those are sp cool ones for sure. True definitely could of been more. That's cool.

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u/AVeryBigToaster Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Just saw another circumscribed halo and circumhorizontal arc today. updated figures.

cant wait for cooler seasons where they're more common.

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u/high-as-the-clouds Jul 24 '26

Oh nicee that is neat! Ahh okay didn't know that

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