17 December 2010 by Tristan Gooley
Just saw and managed to snap a beautiful 22 degree moon halo. They are caused by the moon’s light refracting through the ice crystals in the high clouds. In this case almost certainly thin cirrus clouds which are presaging the arrival of bad weather. Halos are not the same as moonbows, although they are often called that in error.
Will write more about them tomorrow if I get the chance, but wanted to get the photo up while I could.
28 November 2008 by Tristan Gooley
Last night I stumbled across a name I have been looking for since a sailing trip a couple of months ago, when I took this photo. I now know that the unusual phenomenon in this picture is called a ‘fogbow’. It is similar to a rainbow in many ways, but the fog droplets are so small that instead of light being refracted it is instead diffracted, which leads to a white arc instead of the more familiar colours. Coloured and white bows can occasionally be seen at night, if there are the right atmospheric conditions and a bright moon, but these are given the fair name of ‘moonbows’.
Apparently it also has something to do with quantum wavelengths, but that sounds like one for a rainier day than today and it’s pretty wet out there as it is.
Welcome to the home of natural navigation on the Internet.
Natural navigation is the art of being able to find your way solely by using nature. It encompasses using the sun, moon, stars, weather, water, land, sea, plants and animals.
The Natural Navigator is the school set up by Tristan Gooley to research and teach natural navigation. It is also the title of his book on the subject.
If you would like to know more about natural navigation you can browse the website, read about Tristan’s natural navigation book, or listen to a BBC Radio 4 interview with Tristan.
BBC beech trees birds book cirrus cloud clouds compass contessa 32 courses dawn direction east equinox finding direction gps horizon jupiter land rover latitude lichen moon moss natural navigation nature navigation navigation book navigation course navigation courses north north star orion polaris royal geographical society sea shadows Sirius snow navigating south south downs southeast stars sun sunset trees venus west west sussex wind wind direction
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
BBC Sciences & Nature
