Rare Optical Phenomenon Creates Three Suns in the Sky

[mahatmakanejeeves]

There's a video at the linked site.

Incredibly Rare Celestial Phenomenon Spotted

By ITN Published Jan 22 2015 12:59 PM EST

A rare celestial phenomenon has appeared in Mongolia where it looks like there are three suns in the sky.

As seen in the video above, the middle sun is the one we usually see every day, but the ones on either side are the sun’s smaller reflections.

This makes it look like there are three on the horizon. Staff at a local meteorological center told ITN that the optical phenomenon is known as an anthelion, which means the reflection is caused by sunshine high in the sky and light passing through snow crystals in the air.

An anthelion appears only in a very rare situation: when the temp is lower than 33 degrees celsius, and the air is filled with clouds, vapor, and ice crystals.

This site has an explanation, but also an auto-start video:

Watch: Rare optical phenomenon creates three suns in the sky

By Charlotte Krol 10:10AM GMT 22 Jan 2015

A rare celestial phenomenon has appeared in Mongolia which gives the illusion of three suns in the sky. ... Footage shows the sun in the centre with a reflection either side. ... The phenomenon, called an anthelion, occurs when sunlight that is high in the sky passes through snow crystals in the air.

Scientists at a local meteorological centre said an anthelion can only happen when there are temperatures lower than minus 30 degrees Celsius and when the air is filled with clouds, vapour and ice crystals.



Known also as sundogs or mock suns, these brightly colored spots appear on either side of the sun. Sundogs form as sunlight is refracted by hexagonal plate-like ice crystals with diameters larger than 30 micrometres and their flat faces horizontally oriented.

Sundogs are visible when the sun is near the horizon and on the same horizontal plane as the observer and the ice crystals. As sunlight passes through the ice crystals, it is bent by 22 degrees before reaching our eyes. This bending of light results in the formation of a sundog.

[Demit]

1. Cool. There was one in England in the 15th century, that Richard III called "sun in splendour'

It appeared the day before a crucial battle. Richard consequently adopted it as his emblem. There's a book by that name, about Richard III, that is terrific.

[lumpy]

2. We witnessed sundogs in the Alaskan interior sometime in the 1930s.