Sun Dogs

Scientifically the name is Sun Halo. With clouds high up in the sky, ice crystals bend the light from the sun back around the sun. Apparently they are common but I have rarely seen them. This same effect can occur with the moon. We were halfway through the first month and people were outside drinking, smoking and socializing. Parked out front of Juniper was a bus to drop some newbies off that had just checked in and for a moment, our little smoking area seemed like a college quad. Blinded by the light, I looked up for clouds and noticed the effect of a sun halo. It seemed like the Earth had stopped moving and the sun was concentrated on just one part of the ozone; slowly burning a giant noticeable circle into it. That’s what it looked like and not how I feel on the science of what was just said.

It seemed that I was not the only one mesmerized by the science of it. I would point it out to people and the chain would continue. By the end of the hour everyone was looking up at the sun. People would pass by and ask about why we were looking up. Just about everyone would just point. Eventually it got to a point where if you weren’t looking up at the sun and just looked at people pointing as they were blinded by the light, you would have thought Superman was around. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…a sun dog?