Sundown Sun Dog

The setting sun is formed into a sun dog (parhelia) in the southwest sky at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa a little after 5:00 PM on February 18, 2008. Sun dogs, also known as mock suns, are created by sunlight refracted through a 22 degree angle by horizontally oriented hexagonal ice crystal plates formed near the ground. They are usually (but not always) seen in very cold conditions. This view looks over a row of houses along Chatham Road NE from the park.