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Common optical phenomena are often due to the interaction of light from the sun or moon with the atmosphere, clouds, water, or dust and other particulates. One common example would be the rainbow, when light from the sun is reflected off water droplets in rain as it falls to the ground. Others, such as the green ray, are so rare that many consider them to be mythical. Some, such as instances of fata Morgana, are commonplace only in certain locations.

Other phenomena are simply interesting aspects of optics, or optical effects. The colors generated by a prism are often shown in classrooms for instance.

1 A list of optical phenomena

Entopic phenomena include optical phenomena arising from the structures of the eye.

Some optical illusions can be explained as observations of unusual optical phenomena.

1.1 Atmospheric optical phenomena

• Afterglow
• Airglow
• Alexander's band , the dark region between the two bows of a double rainbow.
• Alpenglow
• anticrepuscular rays
• Auroral light (northern and southern lights, aurora borealis and aurora australis)
• crepuscular rays
• Elves [1]
• GloriesA glory is an optical phenomenon produced by light reflected toward its source by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. A glory can have multiple colored rings. The angular size is much smaller than a rainbow, about 5° to 20°, depending on the size o (also known as Brocken's Specter or Specter of the Brocken)
• the Green ray
• HalosHalos are optical phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in cold cirrus clouds located high (5-10, of Sun or Moon, including sun dogA sun dog is an uncommon type of halo, or an atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with the sun. The scientific name for the phenomenon is parhelion (Plural parhelia . It occurs due to internal reflection in ice crystals which accounts for its relativs
• Rainbows
• Sprites [2]

1.2 Other optical phenomena

• Zodiacal lightThe zodiacal light is a faint glow which appears in a band along the ecliptic or zodiac from the vicinity of the Sun. It may be best observed in the western sky in the spring after the sunset twilight has completely disappeared, or in the eastern sky in t
• GegenscheinGegenschein ( German for counterglow is a faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the zodiac directly opposite the Sun caused by reflection of sunlight by small dust particles that lie in the plane of the Solar system. It appears as a softly g
• SylvanshineSylvanshine is an optical phenomenon in which dew-covered trees of species whose leaves are wax-covered retroreflects beams of light, as from a vehicle's headlights, sometimes causing trees to appear to be snow-covered at night during the summer. The phen
• Iridescence