Iridescent Cloud and a question

[Athena]

I saw this beautiful cloud today on the way home from the airport. It's the second iridescent cloud I've seen in the past few months. :)

image 4069, F32, 1/4000
http://lifeprintsphotography.com/MyLife/2ndLuminaCloud_4069.jpg

image 4070, F32, 1/8000
http://lifeprintsphotography.com/MyLife/2ndLuminaCloud_4070.jpg

my question
http://lifeprintsphotography.com/MyLife/2ndLuminaCloud_4070Questions.jpg

The bright, fast moving item on the right hand side is visible in both images. Do you suppose it was a solar flare?!?

[arg245]

UFO !?! - Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

No, I think most likely it's some lens flare. See its shape and composition - it is nearly identical in both images. If it was a moving object, I would expect to see it move along further, even though the images were nearly in succession. A slight movement of the camera angle would also make it appear to move.

The bright spot on the left could be a bright star, maybe?

BTW, nice capture of the iredescent colors.

[Athena]

lol - my first UFO! :lol:

I would have thought lens flare too, but how could it have moved that much in 1/8000?

[waynedsargent]

Its moving the speed of light??? just a guess.

[PhotoFranz]

Solar flares are not visable to the naked eye or a simple camera. The overall brightness of the Sun prevents us from seeing them or photographing them except for during a total solar eclipse. The SOHO solar observatory can also take pictures of them. A lens flare does not move at all, it is just light reflected off coatings of the lens or lens elements. LOL, I think anyway.

[JCR]

UFO, dont be so ridiculous, any fool can see it's a ghost :D

Thats some very funky colour coming through those clouds, I have never seen anything like it.

[Athena]

The light on the left side has been pretty definitively identified as a hard reflection off a streetlamp. :D Now, what is the other thing? It's been suggested it could be a reflection or something on my windscreen.

Composition is a bit funky and the sky is dark because I was shooting through the polarizing film at the top of my windscreen. I tried lightening them, but when I do, they get horribly noisy. Here are a couple more.

image 4065, F32, 1/4000
http://lifeprintsphotography.com/MyLife/2ndLuminaCloud_4065.jpg

image 4067, F32, 1/4000
http://lifeprintsphotography.com/MyLife/2ndLuminaCloud_4067.jpg

and a 100% crop of the thing in 4070, interestingly it has it's own little bit of rainbow color.
http://lifeprintsphotography.com/MyLife/2ndLuminaCloud_4070CROP.jpg

[JCR]

Admit it you sneezed on the windscreen ;)

[Athena]

ok - I admit it. But that's the rainbow colored part. ;) My sneezes are sparkly and beautiful. :lol:

[S-S]

Thats some very funky colour coming through those clouds, I have never seen anything like it.

that colouring can sometimes be seen with the naked eye during the day in cloudy conditions and is an atmospheric phenomenon. the brightest patches can look like small suns and are actually labelled 'sundogs' because they always appear fairly nearby the sun itself, even when it is obscured by cloud.

in the 2 attached photos, neither image contains the actual sun

[Athena]

In my images, it was late afternoon, and the sun hadn't yet slipped down behind the mountains.

Your sundogs are cool! I haven't ever actually seen one myself. You can see some more Sundog Images (http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/dogphots.htm)on the Atmospheric Optics (http://www.atoptics.co.uk/) website.

While I don't have a clue what the thing on the right is, I'm fairly sure my original images are of an iridescent cloud. The colors were visible with the naked eye, and intensified through the polarizing film. Read more about (http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/irid1.htm) and see more (http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/iridim0.htm) iridescent clouds (also from Atmospheric Optics).

Here is the only other iridescent cloud I've seen. This was in Bali this past April without polarization:
http://lifeprintsphotography.com/MyLife/Bali07/BaliHyatt_7187.jpg

[JCR]

ok - I admit it. But that's the rainbow colored part. ;) My sneezes are sparkly and beautiful. :lol:

That's because your a beautiful person Athena ;)

[JCR]

Somethingsimple

Thanks for explaining that to me, it's quite a phenomenon, Ill open my eyes to the sky a little more often I think.

[S-S]

Somethingsimple

Thanks for explaining that to me, it's quite a phenomenon, Ill open my eyes to the sky a little more often I think.

yes it is fun to see things that are moderately rare... if they were there all the time i'm sure we would all forget to look, its the short term of these things that makes them so attractive i think

the atmosphere is cool really - like one giant lens with multicoloured flares

(love your sig - thats a good one)

[Woolburr]

Your shots are definitely an iridescent cloud and not sundogs. We frequently have both here in the mountains. Most sundogs occur in pairs...on opposite sides of the sun...