Fine examples of sundogs and part of a 22-degree halo captured by member Jim Buchell on the 25th September 2023 from Dartford. ”A sundog, also known as sun dog, mock sun or parhelion, consists of glowing spots around the sun. They are created by sunlight refracting off plate-shaped ice crystals in the cirrus clouds. Sundogs […]

Whilst travelling early morning on a train to London, CMHASD Chairman John Archer saw this fine example of a sun pillar on the 23rd October 2023.  ”Sun pillars and light pillars are beams of light that extend vertically upward (or downward) from a bright light source, such as the sun or another bright light low […]

A lovely image taken by member Honor Wheeler on the 10th August 2023 whilst at the pavilion on an informal night of some crepuscular rays. ”Crepuscular rays are sunbeams that originate when the Sun is just above or below a layer of clouds, during the twilight period; which extend over the western sky radiating from […]

Noctilucent clouds put in a rare appearance on the 5th July 2023 from around 10.50pmish until 11.30pm and a few lucky CMHASD members got to see them 🙂 Below are the photos that members Jim Burchell, Diane Clarke, Martin Crow and Sonia took of the clouds. Jim’s NLC images, taken with a Pentax KP. Diane’s […]

Noctilucent cloud spotted on the 30th June 2023 around 3am BST by members Martin Crow and Sonia. Both photos taken using an iPhone. Martin’s image taken from Essex Sonia’s image taken from North Kent

Rare Noctilucent Cloud spotted by CMHASD members Diane Clarke, Martin Crow and Sonia on the 25th June 2023. First image below was taken by Diane using a Panasonic camera DMC-TZ100, f2.8 @ 1/10sec and ISO 6400 at 11.22pm BST. The next two images were taken by Sonia using an iPhone 8 at 11.04pm and 11.14pm […]

A great example of a fogbow captured by member Kevin Smith on the 7th May 2023. A fogbow is a similar phenomenon to a rainbow but as its name suggests, it appears as a bow in fog rather than rain.  Due to the very small size of the water droplets that cause fog being so […]

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/ A splendid example of a Sun halo captured by CMHASD Chairman John Archer on the 30th April 2023. A Sun halo is caused by the refraction, reflection, and dispersion of light through ice particles suspended within thin, wispy, high altitude cirrus or […]

CMHASD member Jim Burchell captured this superb Sun Halo on the 14th Dec 2022 around midday which lasted for quite a long time – over an hour. A Sun halo, also known as ’22 degree halo’, is an optical atmospheric phenomenon that occurs due to sunlight refracting in millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in […]

A shinning example of a Sundog captured by member Martin Crow when out and about on the 20th Nov 2022. A Sundog (or sun dog) is an optical atmospheric phenomenon that causes a bright, rainbow-colored patch of light to occur on either side of the sun or both sides at an angle of 22 degrees.  […]