Rainbow around the sun
May 22nd, 2008 by The Lost Boy
Did anyone else in Thailand see this curious spectacle last Friday? I’m unsure if it was limited to Phuket, but sure enough, there was a rainbow around the sun. I tried in vain to catch a glimpse of the rainbow with my naked eyes and subsequently spent the proceeding 30 minutes completely blind.
It was only when I was in a car that I was able to to look at the sun without blinding myself. Apparently, the rainbow was caused by ice crystals refracting light from the sun.
I was told that this sort of rainbow only occurs every 100 years or so, but I have my doubts about this claim.
Filed under The Boy .
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
I saw this one, and the one last year too. 100 years? Urban myth.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:36 am
Looks cool, right?
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
yeah … just a LOT of humidity in the air … 100 years no … you can see that almost everynight around the moon at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe …. awesome //
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I saw it, too! At about lunchtime ya?
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Thai people call it “Pra Aatit Song Klod”, the Sun God under an umbrella. Descriptive, yes? :)
Nah. You’ll see one once in a while. You’ll see ‘em around a full moon too. When there’s enough ice crystals in the atmosphere. Or something like that. (Too lazy to look it up right now.) You’ll have a rain in a few days.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I have a picture just like it that I took last May in Pattaya…Looks cool but I was told it is caused by air pollution. Be nice to get a definitive answer as to what causes these rings.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:35 am
I’m going to go with magic.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Haze effect… visible in polluted air or in winter…