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On the way home from work yesterday, I noticed a strange phenomenon in the sky that lasted well over 30 minutes. It wasn’t a bird…or a plane…or a hunk in blue underwear (although the day time high was -17C -with the wind chill, it colder than -30C – so anyone braving the outdoors in their underwear would have been blue). Sun dogs, winter rainbows, or phantom suns consist of a pair of bright spots on either side of Mr. Sun. They are usually red nearest the sun, graduating through orange and blue, but since the colours tend to overlap, they appear either very muted or very bright. Winter Sun dogs occur in the atmosphere when sunlight is refracted through “hexagonal ice crystals either in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, drifting in the air at low levels, in which case they are called diamond dust”.  Well, I’ve heard that diamonds are a girl’s best friend!

The photos aren’t great but keep in mind, I was standing in a soccer field with a “point and shoot camera” (which I can’t work with mittens on) and the daytime high was only -17C!! 🙂

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dogs