The glories of flying

[Captain Hutch]

Hi folks,

I hope this comes out okay. I took this photo this morning with my cell phone just prior to descending through the clouds north of Baltimore on our way to Ronald Reagan George Washington National Airport. This light phenomenon is called a "glory", and to make it easy I'll just paste a quote in from Wikipedia.

Glory (optical phenomenon)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A glory is an optical phenomenon produced by light backscattered (a combination of diffraction, reflection and refraction) towards its source by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. A glory has multiple colored rings. The angular size is much smaller than a rainbow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow), about 5° to 20°, depending on the size of the droplets. Since it is seen in the direction opposite the sun, it is most commonly observed while airborne, with the glory surrounding the airplane's shadow on clouds (this is often called The Glory of the Pilot). The phenomenon is also known as an anthelion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthelion).

Their pictures are better than mine, but you can easily see a glory when the sun is behind you and you are descending through a cloud layer. then the shadow of the airplane will be in the middle of the colored rings.

look for it the next time you fly. :eek:

[Barb-SAN]

Wow....what a cool photo!! :eek: (And your cell phone is quite a camera too!). Thanks for sharing...as it is a perspective from the front of the plane that most of us will never see.

I've seen that "glory" a couple times as a passenger, but it's been fleeting, and gone by the time I got my camera out. It was also quite low (below the window) and a difficult angle for the camera. Perhaps the fact that you were descending gave you a better angle for the photo? The ones I've seen have had a shadow of the plane in the middle of the circle...I don't see that in yours (or is the plane that tiny dot right in the center?).

[aerobat]

That's a nice one, Hutch!

I remember seeing a great one somewhere over Wyoming on one of my early "recovery flights"...and it was such an inspiration.

There is a ground-based phenomenon on a mountain peak in Germany called "the Specter of the Brocken" which is similar:

http://www.faust.com/index.php/legend/brocken-specter/

[Barb-SAN]

I found this one (photographed by a commercial plane passenger) using an image search on Google... glory (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.photodesk.iconbar.com/gal/sun/pix/glory.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.photodesk.iconbar.com/gal/sun/glory.shtml&h=431&w=660&sz=22&hl=en&start=17&tbnid=NveoEM33DZNdgM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=138&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dglory%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3De n). This one is particularly vivid...and is similar (though brighter) than the ones I've seen, where you can see the shadow of the plane in the center.

[Captain Hutch]

Yes, we were descending so I could get a better angle, and yes, that is the shadow of the airplane in the middle. Many times I have tried to count the succession of rainbow rings around the shadow and lost count. I know they mention the degrees of visible rings, but I keep thinking I can count more!

:lol: Hutch

[Cammie]

Hey! Why was your cell phone on? :D

[scottr0829]

Apparently he didn't listen to the pre-flight instructions from the flight attendants. I guess he thought he had more important things to do (you mean the plane can't taxi itself?!?). :lol: :D :tongue: ;)

Just kidding of course. Great picture! Any chance you can take a camera and get and post more pics from the front view?

[Rebecca]

Remember this one taken by Agne a couple of years ago? I think it's the same thing. I can't remember where she was when she took it.


http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/IM000550_rid.jpg
Clouds, with the shadow of our plane

[Captain Hutch]

Rebecca,

that's a really cool picture of a glory. :)

By the way, I have an interesting comment for questions about cell phones in the "Lightning" thread.

Thanks,

Hutch :tiphat: