Light Plus Water Equals Halo

Day 190 – January 28, 2012

On this fine and sunny Saturday, my lovely wife and I took our daughter and my wife’s mother (my suegra…which is Spanish for mother-in-law), who was visiting us from northern Virgina, to the healthy market (known locally as the Mercado Saludable) that appears every Sabado in our district of La Molina.

Now, I could regale you with photos and frilly words about the variety of quinoa we saw, the healthy ice cream (lucuma flavored, yum!) we had, the locally grown vegetables we samples, and the tasty cinammon buns we bought, but that is not what this posting will be about.

While our daughter played on the playground apparatus and showed off for some local boys by being able to climb a structure that they couldn’t, my lovely wife looked up into the summer sky and directed our attention to the following celestial display, which I document below…

I'm trusting science that ROYGBIV is all there

All I need now is glitter and unicorns

…and my personal favorite…

It's like it's smiling at you

When asked by my lovely wife what it was, I identified this phenomenon as a sun halo, but a quick search on Wikipedia also used the name “22-degree halo“. Maybe I’ll ask Phil Pliat over at Bad Astronomy what the scientific name is and why it happens.

Either way, just another reminder to me, that as I scan my surroundings to look for new things to see and experience that I should stop looking side to side and, every once in a while, look up.

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