Sundogs are made commonly of plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, by ice crystals called diamond dust drifting in the air at low levels. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°. If the crystals are randomly oriented, a complete ring around the sun is seen — a halo. But often, as the crystals sink through the air they become vertically aligned, so sunlight is refracted horizontally — in this case, sundogs are seen.
As the sun rises higher, the rays passing through the crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane. Their angle of deviation increases and the sundogs move further from the sun. However, they always stay at the same elevation as the sun.This was sort of a rarity in this hot desert, but we had a complete circle around the sun and it lasted for about an hour at high noon.

[MSL]

I prefer the images without the solar hot spot (#2&4) but they are all pretty amazing. The variety of images you post here is also pretty incredible.

[eaglem]

Very interesting indeed Bob, never saw anything like this before.

[daacon]

Thanks for the Wikipedia details and very cool capture.

[charliezap]

You're going "eerie" on me Bob.Very nice different shots.--charliezap

[Rupert]

Doggie! I love that first one! Fantastic! Looks like some place the Devil Squirrel was telling me he sent those that crossed him.....sort of scared me! That last one is pretty awesome too!
Regards!

[Sailor]

Man, I just saw this over on CE but had to look again. Great job, Bob!

Jer

[Bob Harris]

Very interesting indeed Bob, never saw anything like this before.

Sort of unusual for us also EM, I was happy to get the photos. Sort of rough shooting right into the sun, so I experimented with several Hoya filters and different lens to get these shots. Bob

[Bob Harris]

Thanks for the Wikipedia details and very cool capture.

thanks Dave, they had a pretty good explaination of the sundogs, thanks for taking a look, 95 degrees outside for that shot., not cool at all.

[captainbert]

Jeekers creekers Bob... these are amazing... you do indeed shoot everything under the sun and always so well good sir. Love these!

[Bob Harris]

I prefer the images without the solar hot spot (#2&4) but they are all pretty amazing. The variety of images you post here is also pretty incredible.

thanks Marc, we will see how I do with the hot spots when photographing the Solar Eclipse this weekend. How would you of taken the photos to avoid the "hot spots" as you say?

[MSL]

Bob,
I don't think I have an answer for you, but I also realize that I may not have been clear before. By hot spots in your photos I meant the great big solar object at the top of the images. In the pictures 2&4 you framed the composition to avoid the solar glare, which made those pictures easier on my eyes. I've never shot a solar eclipse, and even if I had it would have been on film where the non-linear response under bright conditions mutes hot spots to some extent. So I'm not sure what to try here, other than the standard idea of bracketing your exposure over a wide ev latitude. I'm sure others here will have better ideas, and you should post the question in a separate thread.
Marc

[MSL]

Bob,
Here you go.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/photographic-technique/185882-shooting-us...r-eclipse.html
Marc

[Bob Harris]

Bob,
I don't think I have an answer for you, but I also realize that I may not have been clear before. By hot spots in your photos I meant the great big solar object at the top of the images. In the pictures 2&4 you framed the composition to avoid the solar glare, which made those pictures easier on my eyes. I've never shot a solar eclipse, and even if I had it would have been on film where the non-linear response under bright conditions mutes hot spots to some extent. So I'm not sure what to try here, other than the standard idea of bracketing your exposure over a wide ev latitude. I'm sure others here will have better ideas, and you should post the question in a separate thread.
Marc

Bob,
Here you go.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/photographic-technique/185882-shooting-us...r-eclipse.html
Marc

Oh, I see what you are talking of now, I purposely included the sun, I like the rays interacting with the sun dog. Thanks for the info, I will give it a look. Bob

[MSL]

Oh, I see what you are talking of now, I purposely included the sun, I like the rays interacting with the sun dog. Thanks for the info, I will give it a look. Bob

And I think it adds to those images, particularly 3,5. For the first image, I find it overwhelms the image, but that is a matter of taste and I can see why others would like it.