wylie Loc: Canada

There must be a name for this(?) fellow hoggers! This morning's sunrise appeared approaching the horizon with a huge spear of orange shooting straight up. My first time seeing this. Unfortunately i was slightly late in hauling on some clothes and running over to the river's edge as the spear was particularly brilliant five minutes before this photo was taken.

tomfl

It doesn't look natural. Are you sure this isn't lens flare?

Roy Hakala Loc: Red Wing, MN

I see these occasionally in winter, when ice crystals are dancing in the air. I call them sun dogs, but that may not be a technically correct name for vertical spears of refracted light.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

I think you might be correct in calling it a Sun dog.

edgorm Loc: Rockaway, New York

Actually, I believe it's called a sun column. Quite common when the conditions are right. Nice capture.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Very interesting; have never seen. The scene itself is lovely, as well.

wylie Loc: Canada

Found it . . .
A sun dog or sundog, scientific name parhelion meaning "beside the sun"; is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.[3]
Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low.
Sundogs are made commonly of plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, by ice crystals called diamond dust drifting in the air at low levels. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°. If the crystals are randomly oriented, a complete ring around the sun is seen — a halo. But often, as the crystals sink through the air they become vertically aligned, so sunlight is refracted horizontally — in this case, sundogs are seen.
As the sun rises higher, the rays passing through the crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane. Their angle of deviation increases and the sundogs move further from the sun.[4] However, they always stay at the same elevation as the sun.
Sundogs are red-colored at the side nearest the sun. Farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, never pure or saturated. The colors of the sundog finally merge into the white of the parhelic circle (if the latter is visible).
It is theoretically possible to predict the forms of sundogs as would be seen on other planets and moons. Mars might have sundogs formed by both water-ice and CO2-ice. On the giant gas planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — other crystals form the clouds of ammonia, methane, and other substances that can produce halos with four or more sundogs.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

Is it a column instead of a dog because it is perpendicular to the sun and not beside it?

CSF

These pictures were taken on 1/13. I thought it was unusual also when I took them, it was about 3 degrees .This were taken at sunset.

rogerl Loc: UK (Harrogate, North Yorkshire)

This appears to be the same phenomenon. Churchill, Manitoba while we were on a polar-bear watching trip last November. An awful photo but it was taken as a snapshot through the hotel window!

GeneM Loc: Upstate PA

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: Nice picture! Thanks for sharing.

There is nothing wrong with your lens as some suggest. Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pillar

Google "sun column" and you can see some spectacular pics which yours doesn't take a back seat to any I looked at.

tk Loc: Iowa

Wylie, a great photog would have gone out buck nekked and gotten the shot at any cost. :wink:

Yea, I'd of missed it too. Great capture.

Macbadger Loc: Illinois

Nice shot. I like the composition with the additions in the foreground.

mdeman Loc: Damascus, Maryland

The columns are caused by very still cold air with flat ice crystals that are suspended essentially horizontally. Each ice crystal acts like a little mirror, but only the ones vertically above the light will bounce the light to your eye, hence it appears as a column above the light source. Once was in Anchorage in the winter and saw the effect on every light, including car headlights. Was weird.

firefly662 Loc: Warren, MI

Wow, this happened to me a few weeks ago. I was out driving by the water and stopped at about 5 different places along the way, and took about 50 pictures. This is the only one that came out like this. At first, thought it was the camera, but the other 49 did not have this on it. Learned something new today, thanks fellow UHH's! :-)