Syracuse.com - Outdoors writer eats crow over sun dog story

[HuntingNY-News]

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I talked today to Alfred Stamm, a SUNY Oswego meteorology professor, who gave me a quick education on sun dogs.

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<p><br />Oswego, N.Y. -- A SUNY Oswego meteorology professor set me straight today about what is, and what is not a sun dog.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-sun-dogs.htm">A sun dog, or false sun, is caused by the the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals in nearby cirrus clouds. </a>The phenomenon makes it look like there's more than one sun in the sky. They're usually seen on either side of the sun and are colorful, like a rainbow which is the result of refracted light through raindrops.</p>

<p>It all began when Lynda DeLallo, who lives on the northeast side of Otisco Lake near Davis Grove, was out on the frozen lake with her son, who was home from college. The two were walking about on snowshoes and looked up to the sky. </p>

<p>"It was like a full rainbow around the sun. Very pretty, " she said. She called the phenomenon a sun dog and sent me another black and white photo.</p>

<p>"This was white with a few blips of more white, but it wasn't around the sun," she said of the second photo. "Is this considered a sun dog too? They were both about the same time." </p>

<div id="asset-14557621" class="entry_widget_large entry_widget_right"><span class="adv-photo-large"><img src="/static/common/img/blank.gif" class="lazy adv-photo" data-original="http://media.syracuse.com/outdoors/photo/14557621-large.jpg" alt="sundog2.jpg" /><span class="photo-data"><span class="caption"></span><span class="byline">Lynda DeLallo photo</span></span></span> </div>

<p>I mistakenly told I thought both photos showed sun dogs.<a href="http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2014/03/shoeshoer_snaps_photo_of_sundog_on_otisco_lake.html"> I was wrong and several readers let me know it.<br /></a><br />I talked to Alfred Stamm, a SUNY Oswego meteorology professor, who gave me a quick education on sun dogs.</p>

<p>"The main photo shows color separation and it's hard to tell because of the scale, but I don't see any sun dogs in it. It appears to be a halo," he said, adding the bottom photo appeared to be a halo as well.<br /><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/ring-around-the-sun-2013_n_3279175.html"><br />Halos are also caused by the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals</a> in nearby clouds.</p>

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