Yesterday evening Chap and I and our lovely neighbour T were sitting in the garden enjoying a glass of wine. The clouds were high, wispy cirrus ones, and the evening sun was wonderfully warm (we’ve been having quite a cold spell, so this was doubly welcome). I’d been commenting earlier to Chap how the conditions were similar to those on the day we’d seen a circumzenithal arc and sun dog last year … and sure enough, about half an hour later, there was a sun dog!

Sun dog to the left of the sun, together with the 22° halo. West of Salisbury, Wiltshire, 16 June 2015, 6.30 pm.

This time it was a left sun dog together with a 22° halo around the sun. Fantastic!

Mind you, it doesn’t quite match up to this amazing image, taken earlier this year in New Mexico, United States:

There are nine separate atmospheric optical phenomena visible in this amazing photo by Joshua Thomas. Taken at Red River, New Mexico, USA on 9 January 2015.

And here’s an explanation of what you can see: