Have you ever heard of a sun dog?

If you think there is a certain familiar ring to the term sun dog, then you have probably seen it before on a surf shop or cafe window in a coastal town. You may also be thinking, well I have heard of Moondoggie, who hasn't? But I thought that was just a fictional name of the teen idol from Gidget. 

Check out what shocked us at Lake Anna State Park:

We discovered two setting suns

This is what we saw as the sun was going down over the lake

A sun dog sunset at Lake Anna State Park

Since we didn't want to miss catching the sunset over the water at Lake Anna State Park which was about to occur just after we checked into our cabin, we made a pot of coffee and then quickly drove over to the boat ramp area at Lake Anna State Park. What we saw next stunned us, as I proclaimed in awe "Two suns are setting!"

With camera in my hand, and coffee cup and steering wheel in my husband's hand, I quickly launched myself out of the vehicle before he even had it in park. What is that? What is making that second sun setting over the water, and the beautiful prismy rainbow that is its' reflection? Am I seeing things? 

I took many photos, and enjoyed my coffee as the sun (both of them) fell below the horizon. There is no WIFI at the cabins, so I pleaded with him to help me find WIFI as I had some serious Googling to do.

From wiki we learned:

Sun dogs (or sundogs), mock suns or phantom suns, scientific name parhelia (singular parhelion), are an atmospheric phenomenon that consists of a pair of bright spots on either side on the Sun, often co-occurring with a luminous ring known as a 22° halo.

Formation and characteristics

Sun dogs are commonly caused by the refraction of light from plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals either in high and cold cirrus or cirrostratus clouds or, during very cold weather, drifting in the air at low levels, in which case they are called diamond dust. The crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°. As the crystals gently float downwards with their large hexagonal faces almost horizontal, sunlight is refracted horizontally, and sun dogs are seen to the left and right of the Sun. Larger plates wobble more, and thus produce taller sundogs.

Sun dogs are red-colored at the side nearest the Sun; farther out the colors grade through oranges to blue. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, never pure or saturated. The colors of the sun dog finally merge into the white of the parhelic circle (if the latter is visible).

The same plate shaped ice crystals that cause sun dogs are also responsible for the colorful circumzenithal arc, meaning that these two types of halo tend to co-occur. The latter is often missed by viewers, however, since it is located more or less directly overhead. Another halo variety often seen together with sun dogs is the 22° halo, which forms a ring at roughly the same angular distance from the sun as the sun dogs, thus appearing to interconnect them. As the Sun rises higher, however, the rays passing through the plate crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane, causing their angle of deviation to increase and the sun dogs to move farther from the 22° halo, while staying at the same elevation.

In a nutshell they are refractions

A somewhat common misconception among the general public is to refer to any member of the ice halo family as a "sun dog" (especially the 22° halo, being one of the most common varieties). However, sun dogs represent just one of many different types of halos. Moreover, the term "sun dog" (singular) specifically refers to either of the two bright spots to the left and right of the Sun: each of them is a separate sun dog. Since they typically appear in pairs, it would be more accurate, therefore, to use the plural "sun dogs". For referring to the atmospheric phenomenon in general, the term "(ice crystal) halo(s)" is more appropriate.

And of course we won't leave out moon dogs, which are mock moons (more here).

See notes from same photo at Lake Anna State Park below

So the explanation is really pretty simple, but in my 48 years this is the first time I think I have seen one, or paid much attention. Having my camera with me was a boon.

This is just one of the perks of spending time outside

You may see things you have never even thought about before. In reality we may actually see these sorts of things on a regular basis but are so distracted that we don't recognize something as rare, and as beautiful like I did this by happenstance watching the sunset with the love of my life.

Trust me when I tell you being there together and capturing a sun dog made the whole trip worthwhile. Nothing can compare to enjoying a Virginia State Park with the ones you love, nothing.

It is in these quiet moments that life really happens...