I captured this picture at sunset earlier this week between Rudyard and Trout Lake on H-40 at the edge of the Hiawatha National Forest. A couple summers ago I passed on to you a photo from the same tracks looking the opposite direction in the town of Rudyard.

My grandparents told me that's a Sun Dog in the sky. It means there's going to be a storm the next day. Guess they were right in this case.

See more of Jon's photos at Picture Michigan

looks similar to where i once hunted the high speed beef critters. nice photo. brings back memories of a days hunt. always enjoy your site.

What's a SunDog? I haven't heard of that one before. Thanks!

When you look at it, it feels like your on the caboose of a train, looking back at where the train just traveled.

I believe a sun dog is when the sunlight reflects off ice crystals in the air, which creates bright arcs in the sky to the left and right of the sun, almost as if the sun was in parenthesis ( o ) . I see them quite often in Seattle in the late afternoon, and many times there is a visible ring around the sun.
Andy

Are there Moon Dogs?

Yes, there can be moon dogs, too, but as you might expect, they are usually very faint and can't be photographed very well. The "dogs", both sun and moon, are two bright spots, one on each side of the sun (or moon), and sometimes you can see parts of the rest of the ring as well. I think the picture is actually a sun pillar, which happens fairly frequently in the UP in winter (all those crystals in the air...), which is actually a secret we who live and play there are keeping from the people who write textbooks.

Sharon's right...that's a "sun pillar", caused when falling stop sign-shaped ice crystals orient themselves parallel to the horizon. See http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010313.html for a bit more info.

Neat effect!

We here in Ocala fl. saw what looked like two clouds with a rainbow of colors threw both. A person living here called it a sundog. This is the first time we heard of that name. He also said
it was a sign of a change of weather coming.