parhelion

Updated: May 5, 2025

This vision, which in all probability was only a parhelion, exaggerated by a superstitious and excited imagination, produced a crisis in the life of Constantine.

Hugh Macmillan - Roman Mosaics: Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood

We did 16 altogether for the day, and so should pick up our last depot to-morrow afternoon. The weather became fairly thick soon after noon, and at the end of the afternoon there was considerable drift with a mist caused by ice crystals and parhelion. "January 20. Good sailing breeze again this morning; it is a great pleasure to have one's back to the wind instead of having to face it.

baron Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans Mountevans - South with Scott

Scipio was asking me, replied Philus, what I thought of the parhelion, or mock sun, whose recent apparition was so strongly attested. Lælius. Do you say then, my Philus, that we have sufficiently examined those questions which concern our own houses and the Commonwealth, that we begin to investigate the celestial mysteries?

Marcus Tullius Cicero - Cicero's Tusculan Disputations: Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth

About noon on the 16th, a parhelion, faintly prismatic, appeared on each side of the sun, continuing only for half an hour.

Sir William Edward Parry - Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1

I shall therefore suppose that there was some natural appearance, perhaps a parhelion, the cause of which Constantine did not fully understand, and, from the appearance in the sky around it, his fancy, aided by superstition, painted to his imagination the supposed cross, as also the Greek words, which being pointed out to the soldiers they might easily imagine the same, or, if they did not, would not like to oppose the opinion of their general.

Hosea Ballou - A Series of Letters in Defence of Divine Revelation

I am very willing to consent, answered Scipio, and we may be able to compare notes respecting the several topics that interest us. X. Be it so, said Tubero; and since you invite me to discussion, and present the opportunity, let us first examine, before any one else arrives, what can be the nature of the parhelion, or double sun, which was mentioned in the senate.

Marcus Tullius Cicero - Cicero's Tusculan Disputations: Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth

During the next few days I sought hard for some possible explanation of what had occurred, but could find nothing parallel to it within the scope of my knowledge. I tried fata morgana, mirage, parhelion, and whatever I had learned of recognized illusion, but in vain sought satisfaction, or anything pointing in the direction of satisfaction. I was compelled to leave the thing alone.

George MacDonald - The Flight of the Shadow

At noon on the 7th we had the first clear view of the sun which we had yet enjoyed since its reappearance above our horizon, and an indistinct parhelion, or mock sun, slightly prismatic, was seen on the eastern side of it, at the distance of 22°. There was now sufficient daylight, from eight o'clock till four, to enable us to perform with great facility any work outside the ships.

Sir William Edward Parry - Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1

To leave a party on the Barrier would make us very short-handed; still, it can be done, and anything is preferable to the delay in assisting the people at Cape Evans. At 5 a.m. a beautiful parhelion formed around the sun. The sight so impressed the bos'n that he roused me out to see it." During the month of October the 'Aurora' drifted uneventfully.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton - South: the story of Shackleton's 1914-1917 expedition