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(meteorobs) Moon dogs
I can't help but comment on the Moon Dogs that were mentioned by some of
our members though it is hardly a meteor related topic. Over 60 years
ago I started arguing about "sun dogs". I thought that any of these
colorful spectral blobs that you see about 22o from the sun were sun
dogs. Some dictionary descriptions agree with that. However during the
sun spot maximum some years ago I finally saw what these argumentative
people were talking about. I was always trying to see sunspots with the
unaided eye through heavy smog, fog or clouds. One stormy day when I
was crossing a parking lot I looked up and thought that I was seeing the
sun through a veiled opening in the clouds. However I soon recognized
that it was actually about 22o from the sun. It only differed in that
the opposite edges pointing to and away from the sun were slightly
tinted with color no doubt in the same order as those broad spectral
blobs that so often pass as sun dogs. It contained no spots. The
Webster's Collegiate dictionary defines sun dogs as "a small nearly
round halo on the parhelic circle most frequently just outside the halo
of 22 degrees". I am not going to argue with anyone but I feel that I
have only seen a true sun dog only once in my life and that was it.
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