Parihelion (a/k/a Sun Dog)

When it's below freezing, the spherical rain droplets in the air become angular prisms of ice. As a result, in the Northwoods we don't often see rainbows in the winter but we do get a myriad of other effects. This is a picture of a perihelion that can be seen 22 degrees on either side of the sun. On a calm morning, plate-shaped crystals have the proper orientation to refract light to either side of the sun (rather than an arc around the sun as you would see if it was warm). The flatter the orientation, the brighter the spot - like this one - looking almost like a false sun. You can see a tail of white light extending away from the colored spot. That is the result of light passing through ice crystals at angles other than minimum deviation so all of the colors overlap, giving a streak of white. Pretty neat stuff, huh?