sungdog and moonbow

I captured some interesting cloud phenomena this week -- so here's a little meteorological info you can use to wow your friends.

Here's a sundog, which is also called a mock sun. It's "a colored, luminous spot or halo appearing to the side of the sun." The luminous spot is caused by the refraction of light through ice crystals in the atmosphere.


And on Halloween eve we saw this night rainbow, also caused by refraction of light through ice crystals in clouds. I guess it's different than an official moonbow, which is produced by light reflected off the moon...if you want to get all technical about it.