This sun dog was captured with the setting sun over the west side of our property. Here I’m seeing the left hand sun dog but there would have been one on the right side too at the same distance from the sun (obscured by the trees).
Sun dogs are interesting halo effects caused by tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere reflecting light at just the right angle to create the impression of a second or third sun in the sky. They are sometimes seen with a rainbow-like arc of light or pillars of light as seen here.
I don’t see them often, and when I do I’m rarely in a good position for a nice photo. If I had been able to rush out to a local lake and get a long view without trees in the way I might have captured both the left and right sun dogs at the same time. On the other hand, those trees helped me here. Without them blocking some of the glaring sunlight the less intense sun dogs would have been more difficult to pick up in a photo.
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