Weight reduction of the mount and tripod in order to continue to utilize the excellent but heavy TOA-150B under dark skies. Because my age was beginning to tell on me that I needed a lighter setup. Harmonic drive mount no longer requires counterweights and even tube weights.
What's happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating prisms. Known informally as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc appears parallel to the horizon. For a circumhorizontal arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds present below -- in this case cirrus fibratus. The numerous, flat, hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight in a collectively similar manner. Therefore, circumhorizontal arcs are somewhat unusual to see. The featured fire rainbow was photographed in 2021 near North Fork Mountain in West Virginia, USA.
Image Credit & Copyright: Christa Harbig