Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A luminous, white, diffuse spot occasionally seen in the sky opposite the sun on the parhelic circle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A solar phenomenon consisting of one or more faint luminous rings around the shadow of the head of an observer when projected at no great distance by the sun when it is near the horizon on a cloud, fog-bank, grass covered with dew, or other moist surface. It is sometimes observed in alpine and polar regions, and is due to diffraction of light.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Meteor.) A halo opposite the sun, consisting of a colored ring or rings around the shadow of the spectator's own head, as projected on a cloud or on an opposite fog bank.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A faint, white
halo rarely seen in thesky opposite thesun on theparhelic circle
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Glory: Also known as an anthelion (opposite the sun), A glory is produced by light backscattered (a combination of diffraction, reflection and refraction) towards its source by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets.
Celestial Phenomena 2008
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What of the silhouette or the anthelion of the Scandinavian Alps, and the aerial cities so often seen by explorers and travelers?
What's in a Dream: A Scientific and Practical Interpretation of Dreams 1901
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The Transfiguration on Mount Tabor when the disciples suddenly beheld the image of the Master accompanied by the images of Moses and Elias, did not cause a more profound astonishment to those who witnessed it than did the sight of the anthelion, of which the explanation is known to all meteorologists, to the innocent Norwegian maiden.
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He, however, not having observed the anthelion at the moment when her image appeared in it, had not been especially surprised by a phenomenon which he had already seen several times and observed under better conditions from the parachute of a balloon, and having taken no particular notice of it, had nothing to say about it.
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The anthelion remained upon the clouds sufficiently distinct, and for
Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky Various 1880
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