"Double celestial delight! - 2 optical phenomenon in one frame.

The weather was very clear today with a few high clouds over zenith making it perfectly placed for the creation of solar halo at 22 degrees and to add drama to this beauty the jets were spewing rainbow colors in the sky once again today and with so much clarity. I was lucky enough to capture a stunning solar halo with rainbow colors, accompanied by iridiscent contrails in the same frame!

A solar halo, also known as a 22° halo, is an optical phenomenon that occurs when sunlight passes through ice crystals in the atmosphere at a precise angle. This creates a circular ring of light around the sun, typically with a radius of 22 degrees.

The rainbow colors appear when the ice crystals act as prisms, refracting and dispersing the sunlight into its individual colors. This is similar to the principle behind a rainbow, but in this case, the colors are seen as a ring rather than an arc.

And what about the iridiscent contrails? Contrails (short for condensation trails) are the white streaks left behind by airplanes as they fly through the sky. Iridescence occurs when the water droplets or ice crystals in the contrail diffract sunlight, creating a play of colors. This is similar to the shimmering effect seen on a soap bubble or oil slick.

Canon EOS 1300D
Samyang 135mm f/2 lens

Single image ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/1600, 135mm with slight crop