Photos of Clouds and Skies (That you took yourself)

It was an interesting (well, interesting to me) sky here yesterday. I also took this. I think that might be the same linear cloud structure at the bottom of the photo.
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This is Shingle Springs, CA, (just east of Sacramento) here's the region:

The clouds look(ed) more promising/threatening than they were but we did see a few drops of rain here in the Bay Area.
 
My wife and I spent the weekend on Lake Nacimiento, near Paso Robles, CA. We were greeted to our camp spot with a circumzenithal arc.
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Saturday, While fishing, we saw this halo.

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Returning to the campground, there was a Kelvin-Helmholtz formation,

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and some nice iridescence.

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The fishing wasn't bad, either.

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My wife and I spent the weekend on Lake Nacimiento, near Paso Robles, CA. We were greeted to our camp spot with a circumzenithal arc.
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Looks too white and too low (judging by the trees) for a circumzenithal arc. Could it have been part of a parhelic circle?

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parcirc.htm

The parhelic circle is a white band circling the sky and always at the same height above the horizon as the sun. Most of the time only fragments are seen, usually extending from sundogs in the directions away from the sun. When you see these long tails it is worth checking carefully all around the sky because the colourless parhelic circle can at first be difficult to distinguish from cloud.
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My wife and I spent the weekend on Lake Nacimiento, near Paso Robles, CA....
You always seem to catch some great atmospheric phenomena on your trips, Matt! The sky here in London resembles a sheet of grey cardboard today, and I think it will be the same for tomorrow's solar eclipse :(
 
Looks too white and too low (judging by the trees) for a circumzenithal arc. Could it have been part of a parhelic circle?

It could be. If it helps, the photo was taken at 2:42 pm pacific, Friday, March 13. I was standing at 35°45’33.5” N 120°54’01.7 W, and this was my view.

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I'd say the tree was 8-10 meters tall.
 
You always seem to catch some great atmospheric phenomena on your trips, Matt! The sky here in London resembles a sheet of grey cardboard today, and I think it will be the same for tomorrow's solar eclipse :(

You just gotta LOOK UP!!;)

If you do get a break in the clouds and don't have a proper filter for your camera, I found that a number 8 welder's glass held over the lens works fairly well and is inexpensive, you need a number 14 or better if you are looking directly at the sun. I was even able to see AR 2192 during our last partial eclipse in October.
 
You just gotta LOOK UP!!;)

If you do get a break in the clouds and don't have a proper filter for your camera, I found that a number 8 welder's glass held over the lens works fairly well and is inexpensive, you need a number 14 or better if you are looking directly at the sun. I was even able to see AR 2192 during our last partial eclipse in October.

I tried the welders glass, and while it was fine for the naked eye, it was terrible on my 500mm lens. I got vastly better results by projecting it with some binoculars onto some bright white paper.
 
I photographed the 2002 total eclipse in Australia through a sheet of metallised mylar foil - the kind that looks opaque silver unless you hold it up to a bright light.

The total and diamond ring phases were taken with no filter (and total guesswork on the exposure!)

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I tried the welders glass, and while it was fine for the naked eye, it was terrible on my 500mm lens. I got vastly better results by projecting it with some binoculars onto some bright white paper.

Did it let too much light in around the sides? I cut the end off of an 1/2" rubber drain coupling and glued it to the glass. It fits on my lens perfectly, the photo above is fully zoomed at 500mm.DSCF1353.JPG
 
Did it let too much light in around the sides? I cut the end off of an 1/2" rubber drain coupling and glued it to the glass. It fits on my lens perfectly, the photo above is fully zoomed at 500mm.DSCF1353.JPG

No, I had it light tight, but it was too blurry. This is what I ended up doing:

I then took photos of the projected image with my iPhone, which ended up better than 500mm+Welders Glass.
 
From my window here in Oslo earlier today. I really didn't expect to get a shot of it due to the weather, but the clouds thinned out just enough to form a perfect neutral density filter at just the right moment._DSC5188.jpg
 
From my window here in Oslo earlier today. I really didn't expect to get a shot of it due to the weather, but the clouds thinned out just enough to form a perfect neutral density filter at just the right moment._DSC5188.jpg
I had no such luck at my location. When the clouds thinned out a bit near the end of eclipse, the Sun already resembled the Apple logo:
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Was it above the sun?
The sun was to my back, over my right shoulder. I had backed our camper into our spot, got out of the car and that was the first thing I saw. It only lasted a little more than 4 minutes before the cloud drifted, and the arc faded. The photo I posted above was number 3 in the series.

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The sun was to my back, over my right shoulder. I had backed our camper into our spot, got out of the car and that was the first thing I saw. It only lasted a little more than 4 minutes before the cloud drifted, and the arc faded. The photo I posted above was number 3 in the series.

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Pretty sure that's a parhelic circle then. Not jealous or anything.
 
Friday's eclipse as photographed from Ireland. It was cloudy but it was visible when it was behind thinner patches of cloud. The cloud actually helped make taking photos easier as it basically acted as a filter blocking out most of the light from the sun.

I had spots in my eyes for about an hour afterwards however from staring at it with the naked eye. Stupid thing to do.Eclipse.jpg
 
Rippled clouds viewed from above over the English Channel. On the second picture there is also some cirrus above. (Contrast enhanced)

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Thought this pair of Cirrus(I think? I know nothing about nephology!) clouds looked pretty cool over Edinburgh today!
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These are contrails, a.k.a. cirrus aviaticus, that have been left by the flights passing southwest of Edinburgh. A pair of likely candidates are KLM213 and KLM677 that have flown by very similar routes around 1:30 PM BST
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Their tracks are in right directions and at right distances from the Scottish capital. If are viewed in Google Earth from Calton Hill, they match the contrail positions in your photo.

PS. The photos of contrails taken by members usually are discussed in a related thread:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/photos-of-planes-and-contrails-that-you-took-yourself.1487/
 
Their tracks are in right directions and at right distances from the Scottish capital. If are viewed in Google Earth from Calton Hill, they match the contrail positions in your photo.

Amazing, thanks for the info! Didn't realise they were contrails; it's amazing how deceptive they look, in terms of distance. They seem almost overhead, but in reality quite a distance away.
 
Amazing, thanks for the info! Didn't realise they were contrails; it's amazing how deceptive they look, in terms of distance. They seem almost overhead, but in reality quite a distance away.

Yes, contrails often look deceptive in terms of distance. This is because they are at altitudes higher than Everest :rolleyes:
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This is how the Google Earth KLM677 track looks from approximately the same Google StreetView location, as in your photo.
 
Some interesting banded cirrus clouds over Hampshire yesterday. I'm not sure if they were contrail related or not.

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Very nice @cloudspotter. Reminds me that I meant to post this one from my week in Austria last month. A nice halo (and some rather threadbare tracked-out powder - it got better lower down!)

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And I just found these pics on my phone, which I took last month and forgot about. Clouds casting shadows onto a thin haze layer below. Taken in Weybridge, Surrey, UK, on April 6 2015.

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Along with a 22° halo and what I think is a 46° halo? This photo shows all three, with the parhelic circle cutting across the middle.

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Comparing to @solrey's photo I think the brighter portion of halo at top left is actually an upper tangent arc, with the fainter 22° halo visible inside it a bit lower down. (The photo was taken "sideways" with the sun almost at its highest.)
 
WP_20150628_19_03_18_Pro[1].jpg Interesting hole I spotted yesterday. Bit gutted that I didn't get more photos and look around for clues - I spotted a short strip of persistent contrail a little way off which may have lined up with this. My thinking is it may have been caused by an earlier flight
 
WP_20150628_19_03_18_Pro[1].jpg Interesting hole I spotted yesterday. Bit gutted that I didn't get more photos and look around for clues - I spotted a short strip of persistent contrail a little way off which may have lined up with this. My thinking is it may have been caused by an earlier flight

Possibly a single plane ascending or descending through the thin cloud layer, in the upper left it looks like a distrail, then there's what seems to be a hole punch cloud. But it's hard to tell without more context.
 
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