A halo around the sun

We took these beautiful pictures of a halo around the sun last week during our skiing trip to the French Alps.

In the winter, when the sun appears lower in the sky, falling ice crystals turn the atmosphere into a giant lens causing arcs and halos to appear around the Sun.

When viewed from within the ski lift, the sun was a bit more cloud covered by the icy clouds lower in the valley and this caused a second halo to be visible!  To get an impression of that second halo, here’s a great example, as shot by Sarah from sarahontheroad.com , as we didn’t dare to draw our iPhones when in the lift!