What sort of sundogs am I dogging?

I thought I should start by explaining the name. The sundogs I'm interested in are not solar hot dogs nor are they a musical group. They are the atmospheric phenomena known as parhelia, aka sundogs. If you take the sun, throw in some hexagonal ice crystals of a certain shape (high, thin clouds are best), add your eyes, and mix in the magic of physics ... you might get a pair of sundogs - one on each side of the sun.

One of my favorite pictures of a sundog was taken by Ian Parker. He has a web site called Evanescent Light, which has incredible photographs. Here is a tiny version of his sundog, but you should go to his site and see the full-sized version.

Sundog by Ian Parker

So, those are my sundogs - look up once in a while, and you're bound to see one sooner or later. 

Anyway, that's the derivation of the name. And this may or may not be the only post about sundogs I'll ever do.

-- a Sundogger