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Sue, a member of my local society (Nottingham) spotted and took a photo of an oval solar halo on 7th May 2025 whilst in Buckinghamshire. I had assumed the oval shape was due to an optical distortion produced by the smart phone’s lens, but it transpires others saw the oval halo too at the same time. Images on Spaceweather.com (uploaded on 10th May) also show a parhelic circle along with the oval halo, and in Sue’s photo which she has allowed me to share here, also shows evidence of the parhelic circle; photo taken 12:38 (BST) 7th may 2025, Waddesdon Manor, Bucks. Has anyone else seen an oval solar halo?
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=10&month=05&year=2025
James Dawson
NottinghamAttachments:
Gary, I think you’ve nailed it. With the eye of faith I can see an inner circular halo in Sue’s photo. Looking in Stellarium the Sun would have been 52.5 degrees above the horizon. I’ve made an animated gif to show roughly where I think the true solar halo is:
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i am delighted to see both James And Gary discuss this phenomena..
It is possible that I still have further photographic input
if such will further the discussion..
Strange indeed that I too live in Bucks and the photo attached
was taken at 1043 from M40 Jn3 Locality..Casual Photography of ‘Sun-ups’ has been an interest of mine for decades.
Down in the Loudwater Valley the terms Sunrise/Sunset are hardly appropriate..Again strange.. that in my case too..
A Lady member of the Maidenhead Astronomical Society brought our
attention to this rare event with a Phone photo.However.. the photo attached was taken by my camera pointing to the Zenith..
at around 1044am in the locality of ‘M40 Jn3’ on 7th May 2025..
The 2.8 lens has the expected deformations.. but the Oval Rainbow Curvature in this case
seems real enough to my casual eye.. especially with later ‘Space Weather’ confirming same.Looking forward to your comments..
In passing.. A retro glance as I type this.. now showsme that..
an Oval Rainbow Halo was already established at around 0430.UT before Local Sunup at around 0455.UT.Attachments:
Indeed the phenomenon in Sue’s image is a Circumscribed Halo, nice capture but Stan’s image shows the Circumscribed halo as well but the white circle around the zenith is a Parhelic Circle. A full Parhelic circle is not a common phenomenon to witness in the UK usually only a portion is seen when a 22° Halo and Parhelia or Sundog are seen. The rarest, and I think the most spectacular halo to see in the UK, is a Horizontal Arc. Good luck seeing Horizontal arc in all the years I’ve been observing I’ve only ever seen a tiny portion of one. Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley used to run a comprehensive atmospheric phenomenon website but alas only specific pages of it can be located during an online search.
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