Latest news with #DePeralta
Gulf Insider
27-04-2025
- Science
- Gulf Insider
Look: UAE Residents Capture Rare 22° Halo Around Sun; Did You See It Too?
On Saturday afternoon, UAE's skies were lit up by a breathtaking celestial display — a rare 22°C halo. The stunning solar halo formed a perfect, luminous ring around the sun, creating a magical scene that left onlookers in awe. According to Ibrahim Al Jarwan, Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Emirates Astronomical Society, the optical phenomenon occurs when sunlight refracts through ice crystals in high, thin clouds like cirrus clouds. One of those lucky enough to capture the spectacle was Ralph Emerson B. De Peralta, a 51-year-old engineer and long-time UAE resident. While Ibrahim spotted the phenomenon in Sharjah, Ralph did so from Abu Dhabi. 'Yesterday, while I was inside my room, I happened to glance outside my window and noticed a distinct, glowing ring around the sun,' De Peralta shared. 'Recognising it immediately as a sun halo — a rare sight especially in the UAE — I quickly grabbed my camera and rushed outside, even though it was already around 1pm and extremely hot.' Using a pathway lined with large trees as a natural frame, he managed to snap stunning photographs of the phenomenon. Check out the photos below: When asked how he instantly recognised the halo, De Peralta said, 'I've always been fascinated by sky phenomena like the stars, the Milky Way, the moon, and the sun. My wife even jokes that I should have been an astrophysicist!' Watch the video of the sun halo below as shared by Emerson: How does a sun halo occur? Sun halos are caused by sunlight passing through millions of tiny ice crystals in high cirrostratus clouds. These hexagonal ice crystals form these clouds. So, when sunlight gets refracted through those ice crystals a circular ring of light is created around the Sun. The angle — 22° — is the angular radius of the corona we see around the Sun, not the angle of refraction of the light. This phenomenon could also be an indication of changes in weather conditions, like an approaching low pressure system. Is it related to the recent sun storm? Khadija Al Hariri, operations manager at the Dubai Astronomy Group, explained that sun halos are unrelated to recent solar storms. 'Sun halos are caused by ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere bending sunlight. Solar storms are caused by activity on the sun — like solar flares and coronal mass ejections — that send charged particles toward Earth, potentially affecting satellites, power grids, and creating auroras,' she explained. 'This phenomenon is rare in the UAE because it's usually too hot and dry for the high-altitude ice crystals needed to form a sun halo,' she said. 'It doesn't have any direct impact on the sun or space activity — it's purely a local atmospheric observation.' Ralph mentioned that he last saw the sun halo about two years ago when he was walking around the Al Maryah Island. Aside from UAE, the rare phenomenon also graced the skies of Aseer in Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning.
Al Etihad
16-04-2025
- Science
- Al Etihad
Look: Stunning Milky Way spectacle lights up UAE's darkest spot
17 Apr 2025 00:57 KIRSTIN BERNABE (ABU DHABI)In the heart of Abu Dhabi's desert, there's a spot so dark that the night sky comes alive — offering a clear, breathtaking view of the galaxy to those who are willing to wait. Expat Ralph Emerson De Peralta is among them, a patient stargazer and astrophotographer who camps out at one of the darkest places in the UAE to get a magical shot of the cosmos. His latest work captured an unusual celestial view: the Milky Way in two arches. To the uninitiated, the stunning photo seemingly shows two separate Milky Ways — but how can there be two when there's only one Milky Way, the galaxy that houses our solar system?Explaining the 'mystery' and why he considers the photo a bucket-list shot, De Peralta said this is the view of the Milky Way's winter and summer arches, captured in a time-lapse panorama. He drove to Abu Dhabi's Al Quaa Desert — one of the darkest accessible spots in the country — in early April, hoping to catch the dual-arch Milky Way. He had to wait at least six hours. 'This is by far the most challenging time-blended landscape astrophotography image I've ever captured and edited. It's not for the impatient, you need endurance and patience to pull this off,' he told Aletihad . He took the shot from a single tripod location with a six-hour interval between capturing the winter and summer arches. He used a star tracker to snap the winter arch at 9pm and waited until 3am to click the summer side. 'This vision had been in my mind for weeks, and I finally made it a reality,' he said. The Science Behind the ViewEng. Ibrahim Ghonaimat of the International Astronomy Centre confirmed that the photo shows 'two distinct sections of the Milky Way, photographed from the same location, but at different times of night'.'They form two opposing arcs in the sky, which — when captured on the same night — create a panoramic blend of both the feint and bright halves of the Milky Way.'March to early April is 'a sweet spot' in the Earth's orbital position, he said. 'The winter Milky Way (October-April) is still just visible after sunset, while the summer Milky Way (March-September) core rises just before dawn.'For those who wish to replicate the shot, however, it's a bit too late now, the expert said. 'After April 10–12, your chances rapidly decline due to seasonal transition and shorter nights,' he said. Year-round Mission For astrophotographers like De Peralta, any day could be a good day to capture the skies - and whenever he can, he heads to the desert, usually with other photographers who share the same passion for chasing the Milky Way. 'But sometimes, I go alone into the Abu Dhabi desert to take photos of the night sky. There's nothing more inspiring than photographing the Milky Way, it's my way of escaping the hustle and bustle of city life,' said the expat, who works as a civil engineer and has been living in Abu Dhabi for 19 years. 'Standing under the stars, I feel a quiet connection between us and the universe, a reminder that we are small, yet our dreams have no limits,' he said. Among his other stunning photos show star trails in circles, which were captured during the Eid Al Etihad holiday in 2024, and the Perseid meteor shower in August may be personal to hobbyists like De Peralta, but for astronomy, such photos have both artistic and scientific value. 'They sit at the intersection of science and art. It's storytelling with stars. Visual poetry. You're combining two time periods into one image, so it's not a literal representation of the sky,' Ghonaimat said.'To an extent, it can be scientific. Such images demonstrate spatial orientation of the galaxy, help educate about seasonal visibility, and are used in outreach, astronomy presentations, and planetarium projections,' he added. However, for raw scientific data analysis, astronomers rely on precise, timestamped, unblended images, the expert clarified. 'So these panoramas are not scientific data, but they inspire science — and that's just as valuable.'
