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A beautiful and colorful halo — a 22 degree ring — as seen on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, taken by ‘Astrohans” (a.k.a. Hans Schremmer) on Flickr. Hans posted that circumhorizontal arc is also visible, and that the photo was taken on May 8, 2010 in Playa Blanca, using a Canon EOS 400D Digital.
Halos form when light from the Sun or Moon is refracted by ice crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds (like cirrostratus clouds). A 22 degree halo is a ring of light 22 degrees from the Sun (or Moon) and is the most common type of halo observed.
See more from Astrohans Flickr stream, or at the Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V website, an astronomy club in Germany club which focuses on atmospheric phenomena and meteors.
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I have seen two Saint Petersburg displays. This has rainbow arcs, but where the main one bends away from the sun and the others are perpendicular to the main arc. I took pictures of one of them, which turned out ok, though this was before digicams and the like.
LC
What a beautiful photograph!