Getting the window seat on a plane can give you great views of oceans, mountains and rivers - and, if you're lucky, the odd mysterious phenomenon. One Cork passenger flying home from Kraków last week caught a glimpse of this rainbow-like 'glory' as the plane descended towards Dublin airport. The phenomenon resembles a circular rainbow with the observer's shadow at the centre - almost like an angelic halo, which is where the glory gets its name.
Often the observer's shadow blocks part of the halo - but in this case the concentric rings are complete, with the shadow of the plane bang in the centre. A glory appears when sunlight passes through the droplets of water that make up a cloud. Seen from the air, the phenomenon is commonly known as pilot's glory.
A similar phenomenon is the spooky Brocken spectre , which occurs when an observer's shadow is cast upon a cloud or fog - creating a ghostlike figure in midair. Named after the Brocken peak in Germany, a Brocken spectre often occurs in conjunction with a glory - and is sometimes experienced by hikers walking high in the mountains. Read more: Summer leaves Cork for the weekend as Met Éireann says more rain is on the way Read more: False widow season begins as venomous spider spotted at Cork home Earlier this year astronomers spotted a glory on a planet outside of our solar system for the first time ever Olivier Demangeon, member of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, explained: "There's a reason no .