© Tom LoweSun halo and smaller halo over Redcar.
No, little green men weren't spotted over Teesside , but there was something looking rather other-worldly...A sun Halo.
A Sun halo is formed when light is refracted in millions of hexagonal ice crystals which are suspended in the atmosphere and can be formed at different degrees.
"Over the past few years I have become increasingly interested in observing and photographing atmospheric optical phenomena," Said Tom Lowe who took the picture in Redcar.
"So when the sky is full of hazy high cirrus cloud as it was over Redcar, I regularly glance towards (never at) the sun.
"This is because these clouds are formed of tiny hexagonal ice crystals which reflect and refract sunlight in predictable ways, forming impressive and sometimes spectacular halos and arcs in the sky."
And while the large halo is actually quite common - we just end up missing them due to cleverly not staring at the Sun - the smaller halo is very rare. "The 9-degree halo is a much rarer sight, and this was the first I have seen. An aircraft contrail bisects the halos, itself casting a thin dark shadow on the cirrus, and to the left of this is a patch of much lower cloud, probably altocumulus.
© Tom Lowe
"This consists of water droplets rather than ice crystals, and when the sunlight is diffracted by droplets of identical size, it forms a corona, concentric rings of colours reminiscent of a rainbow.
"To get all of this in one photo is very unusual, so I sat in the dunes and took dozens of pictures on my mobile phone, in the hope that one would come out OK."
is closing in... the destroyer is at the door.