Talk:Heiligenschein

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Are you sure that this is the correct definition of heiligenschein? The German word translates to halo (both the thing around a saints head, and also an optical phenomenon). Also, the photo looks very much like a glory. The German page de:Glorie shows a very similar photo, too. 82.32.65.149 19:56, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Someone has suggested merging this article with sylvanshine, which is something quite different. Instead this article should be deleted (it is a German word, not an English one) and redirected to Glory (optical phenomenon). As should the stubs at anthelia and anthelion.--Shantavira 15:36, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] rebuttal to previous discussion

There is indeed a relationship between Sylvanshine and Heiligenschein. They both involve spherical water droplets sitting just above the surface of a leaf (or blade of grass, etc...) and which collect light to a crude focus. Some of the light then travels directly back towards the antisolar point, creating this 'shine/schein'. A mention or link between the two is in order, yes definately!

And excellent online resource for this effect is:

   http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/droplets/heilig.htm

Heiligenschein is certainly a German word, however it has established itself in the English language--at least amongst the terminology of weather and meteorolog. Cellini's Halo is sometimes used, as well, but I wouldn't say it is used more than Heiligenschein: I would certainly vote to leave it in Wikiped.

Lastly, I disagree, the Wikiped. photo does not look like a glory. Glories are diffractive and involve rings of colors--having been created in a manner similar to rainbows (though a bit more complicated): This is clearly missing in the photo. See this same website and discussions on 'glories' and on 'Brocken Spectres':

   http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/droplets/glory.htm
   http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/droplets/globrock.htm

[edit] Photo and Book Reference

As uploader of the picture for this article, I can confirm that this is a photo of the Heiligenschein and is not a photo of a glory (as previously explained). This article should NOT be deleted and replaced by Glory (optical phenomenon) as the two are distinct phenomena caused by different mechanisms.

The word "Heiligenschein" is from the German for "Holy light" (referring to the retroreflected light visible around the shadow of the observer giving a halo appearance). A reference for this can be found in the excellent book "Light and Colour in the Outdoors" (Minnaert, M.J.) - I will add references as soon as I can get the correct page numbers. The word has been adopted as a term describing the phenomenon - just because it is German doesn't preclude its use - look at Bremsstrahlung for another German word used to describe a physical process...

In terms of linking this to sylvanshine - yes they should be linked - in fact I would say that the two are exactly the same effec - just that Sylvanshine refers explicitly to retroreflection from waxy leaf trees rather than a general reflection in the case of the heiligenschein. Coatesg 11:52, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Agree, heiligenschein and sylvanshine should have individual articles (by now they are linked to each other). The merge templates have been there for six months now, maybe its time to remove them?

/ Mats Halldin (talk) 07:26, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Translation

The translation of "Heiligenschein" that is in parentehesed is definitely "halo". The book you quote is wrong. "Holy light" would mean "heiliger Schein" which is grammaticaly different. "Heiligenschein" has a differnt meaning. (I'm German so you can really trust me on this.)

Oh! Sorry, I edited the article first and read this afterwards. Feel free to revert my edit of the translation. BTW, there is a German article on de:Heiligenschein which is linked to aureole.

/ Mats Halldin (talk) 07:11, 22 April 2007 (UTC)