Dawn of the Sudelfeld monsters (AKM Halo meeting in January 2012)

Observers and interested people of atmospheric phenomena convened on the first weekend in 2012 to the annual meeting on the Sudelfeld. Actually, the mountain saddle at an altitude of approximately 1200m acts as a predestinate location for halo observations, but the continuous snowfall buried all hopes – like most cars too, by the way.

But the “hydro-meteors” with its radians at the zenith also gave benefits, because the dancing snowflakes optimally served as a canvas for uncounted Sudelfeld monsters and angels, which were surrounded by glories and fog bows partially. Furthermore, we were initiated in the secrets of shooting photographs of snowflakes by Reinhard Nitze.

At our domicile, the Sudelfeld youth hostel, we could rewarm ourselves after nocturnal ghost hunting as well as listen to very interesting articles about light and colors in nature, phenomena in twilight, lamp halos, the three-dimensional appearance of ice crystal halos, bagel-like raindrops and spiderweb-halos. Also fascinating colorful pictures were shown in a great number.

However, the highlight of the meeting was Michaels Großmann’s crazy experimental stuff. He did not even show his first and second edition of the “Halomator”, (2 – 3 – animation), but also performs numerous experiments to illustrate the reason for blue-colored sky, the development of Quételet-rings (2), and the simulation of  higher order rainbows (2).

The next meeting is already being planned. It will take place in Davos/Switzerland on the weekend of 22nd to 25th November 2012. Davos is located at an altitude of 1600m and very popular in winter sports. There are many snow guns, that should support the looked-for halo activity. The meeting will be in German language. Interested persons are welcome and can register here.

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