Door County residents were treated to a very bright sky show Wednesday morning with the appearance of sun dogs in the southeastern sky.
A sun dog, or parhelion (from the Greek word for "beside the sun"), is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often with a luminous halo on either side of the sun.
Sun dogs are created by ice crystals in the sky which act as prisms that bend the light rays passing through them. Sun dogs are best seen when the sun is closer to the horizon.
Door Peninsula Astronomical Society President Dave Udell says they're fairly common.
"I have seen them, I actually saw a moon dog about a month ago which was really pretty neat," says Udell.
These images were captured shortly after 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
Diagram courtesy of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University
