Optical effects, the interplay of light and colour in Nature, are everywhere.

In the skies the rainbow is the best known. More frequent are the halos of geometric exactitude produced by ice crystals.   Clouds, fog and mist have multi-ringed glories, coronae and ghostly fogbows.   Clear air has shadows from clouds, mountains and Earth itself.    Mirages distort distant mountains and render the setting sun into fantastical shapes, sometimes accompanied by a green flash.

Water has glitter paths, sky pools, sub-surface caustics and aureoles.   The land has its dewbows, heiligenschein, light rings and more.   There are domestic effects too - among them, a dusty window will show little known Quételet colours and fringes.

Optics Picture of the Day features and explores these effects alongside its sister site "Atmospheric Optics".

Features appear from day to day and in no particular order, except when topicality demands, allowing serendipitous voyages using the previous and next links.   Each feature has a permanent link and can be found in the OpticsPOD Archives or via Site Search.

Submit an image:
   Maximum of 3** - no ZIP, RAR or RAW files - no large web based archives for me to
   view please**. Do be sure to tell me if you are also submitting the images elsewhere.

Or ask a question by mailing me.

Les Cowley
    
** My time is limited as is bandwidth, I am sorry but submissions of more than
   three images will not be downloaded.   If more images are wanted I will ask!

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