page_title: Sun dog
section_title: Vädersolstavlan
hierarchical_section_title: Sun dog / History / Vädersolstavlan
caption_attribution_description: English: 17th century painting of Stockholm, a copy of the so called Vädersolstavlan, depicting a halo display event in 1535. Cleaned in 1998. The visible haloes are: 22 ° halo, at upper right (should be centered on the Sun) parhelic circle, large white circle (centered on the zenith: appears 'horizontal' in the sky) parhelia including 2 sundogs, 2 120° parhelia and the anthelion (dots on the parhelic circle, resp. nearest to farthest from the Sun) upper tangent arc and possible Parry arc (2 crossing arcs just left of the 22° halo (actually 'above' the 22°, in the sky); not realistically shown) circumzenithal arc, smaller crescent inside the parhelic circle (also centered on the zenith: appears 'horizontal', high in the sky) infralateral arc (bottom right) Note that the whole sky appears strongly tilted in the image: the upper right corner is actually down in the sky (when looking towards the Sun), the zenith is at the center of the circumzenithal arc and parhelic circle. This may result from the artist's choice to represent the display in a realistic orientation relative to the landscape: in this case the sun would have shone from 3/4 back to the right of an observer facing the city. The relative brightnesses of the haloes are quite accurate.
context_page_description: A sun dog or mock sun, formally called a parhelion in meteorology, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Sun. Two sun dogs often flank the Sun within a 22° halo.
  The sun dog is a member of the family of halos caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice crystals in the atmosphere. Sun dogs typically appear as a pair of subtly colored patches of light, around 22° to the left and right of the Sun, and at the same altitude above the horizon as the Sun. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but are not always obvious or bright. Sun dogs are best seen and most conspicuous when the Sun is near the horizon.
context_section_description: While mostly known and often quoted for being the oldest color depiction of the city of Stockholm, Vädersolstavlan (Swedish; "The Sundog Painting", literally "The Weather Sun Painting") is arguably also one of the oldest known depictions of a halo display, including a pair of sun dogs. For two hours in the morning of 20 April 1535, the skies over the city were filled with white circles and arcs crossing the sky, while additional suns (i.e., sun dogs) appeared around the sun. The phenomenon quickly resulted in rumours of an omen of God's forthcoming revenge on King Gustav Vasa (1496–1560) for having introduced Protestantism during the 1520s and for being heavy-handed with his enemies allied with the Danish king.
  Hoping to end speculations, the Chancellor and Lutheran scholar Olaus Petri (1493–1552) ordered a painting to be produced documenting the event. When confronted with the painting, the king, however, interpreted it as a conspiracy – the real sun of course being himself threatened by competing fake suns, one being Olaus Petri and the other the clergyman and scholar Laurentius Andreae (1470–1552), both thus accused of treachery, but eventually escaping capital punishment. The original painting is lost, but a copy from the 1630s survives and can still be seen in the church Storkyrkan in central Stockholm.
caption: The so-called "Sun Dog Painting" (Vädersolstavlan) depicting Stockholm in 1535 and the celestial phenomenon at the time interpreted as an ominous presage
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