[Pmb (OP)]

I was comming home from Boston last night on Rt. 93 N and looked to the west and saw something I've never seen nor heard of before. I sincerly doubt that anybody has ever seen it before yesterday or at least never taken a picture of it. I saw what appeared to be two suns in the sky!

My guess is that there was a super drenching downpour between clouds and the sun was reflecting off the rain. After a while it diminished and turned into a rainbow. I knew what I was seeing so I asked the lady in the back seat to take a photo of it with her phone camera. Sh e was supposed to forward it to my e-mail account but something went wrong. I've contacted the taxi company and they'll get in contact with her and I get my hands on the photo and post it. But OH WOW what a sight!


[MOD EDIT - PLEASE FORMAT YOUR POST TITLES AS QUESTIONS; THANK YOU]

[RD]

"Sun dog" phenomenon can create two extra suns ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog


[ hopefully an atmospheric phenomenon rather than double-vision ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplopia ]

[Pmb (OP)]

"Sun dog" phenomenon can create two extra suns ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog


[ hopefully an atmospheric phenomenon rather than double-vision ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplopia ]

Thee was only one extra sun, not two. A sun dog, also known as parhelion, is caused by ice crystals from cirrus clouds. But the clouds were not cirrus.

See http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/443546/parhelion

Parhelia occur when the Sun or Moon shines through a thin cirrus cloud composed of hexagonal ice crystals falling with their principal axes vertical, as opposed to the halo phenomenon that occurs when the principal axes are randomly arranged in a plane perpendicular to the Sun’s or Moon’s rays. The red end of the spectrum, being bent the least, appears on the inside, with the blue, when visible, appearing on the outside. Parhelia most commonly appear during the winter in the middle latitudes.

[Lmnre]

I was on 93N at about 5:35 last night, and I saw the rainbow in the cloud, but I must have been too late to see the second sun.

[yor_on]

And what will you say if the lady's photo only show one sun Pete, although you and that lady both will swear to that you saw two?

It would be rather cool to me actually
Not all is explainable.

[RD]

... I've contacted the taxi company ...

If you were looking through he window of a taxi whose engine was running, (vibrating the windows),
the effect may vehicular rather than atmospheric.

[ were the two suns close together ?, less than  a sun-diameter apart ? ] 

[Pmb (OP)]

And what will you say if the lady's photo only show one sun Pete, although you and that lady both will swear to that you saw two?

I know different. She showed it to me while we were still in the car.

If you were looking through he window of a taxi whose engine was running, (vibrating the windows), the effect may vehicular rather than atmospheric.

I would think that you folks should know me pretty well by now. First off I am a physicist by education. I know my physics pretty darn well. I consider myself to be a very astute observer of my environment and I never jump to conclusions. It would be impossible for me to make such a trivial and silly mistake such as this. First of all there were four people in the car. We all saw it over several miles of highway, until the sun set and it went away. We discussed it at length. At the time I estimated that the sun and its image were about 20 degrees apart in out visual field of view. And the parhelion effect shows the sun and its image at about 22 degrees apart. When I spoke to the lady at the taxi company she told me that she saw it too and was amazed at the sight. I then explained to her what she was seeing.

You can take my word for it and I don’t give my word lightly since its extremely important to me. In fact I consider my honest word to be one of the most important things about me.

There is absolutely zero doubt that there was an image of the sun caused by an atmospheric phenomena. As sure you as you're reading this.

[w ere the two suns close together ?, less than  a sun-diameter apart ? ] 

About 20 degrees apart.

I’ve attached a photo of the effect that was sent to me by one of the atmospheric physicists at MIT. We only saw the sun and the image on the right. There can be two images depending on the atmosphere.

[Pmb (OP)]

I was on 93N at about 5:35 last night, and I saw the rainbow in the cloud, but I must have been too late to see the second sun.

Howdy neighbor! )

Yep. You must have missed it by about 15 minutes or so. I thought it was a very rare event but I was told today that its not as rare as I thought.

[yor_on]

Never seen it myself
Typical..

[yor_on]

Skulls in the stars wrote about rainbows recently.
http://skullsinthestars.com/2013/05/13/all-about-rainbows-double-rainbows-circular-rainbows/#more-7275