Halo over Þingvellir national park

A halo appeared around the sun last week at Þingvellir national park in South Iceland and was captured on camera by doctor Sigurður E.Þorvaldsson who has a summer residency there. 

"My wife and I were in our summerhouse in Hestvík when we noticed the halo. It was a complete coincidence, I was just relaxing on the deck in the sun," he says to mbl.is. 

The 22° halo he captured on camera is an optical phenomenon that belongs to the family of ice crystal halos, in the form of ar ring with a radius of approximately 22° around the sun or moon. It forms as the sunlight or moonlight is refracted in millions of hexagonalice crysals suspended in the atmosphere. 

The couple said that observing the halo , which faded after around 20 minutes, had been quite an experience. "It's a phenomenon we had heard of but had never seen before."