Abstract
THE article by J. A. Howard1, “Increased Luminance in the Direction of Reflex Reflexion—a recently observed Natural Phenomenon”, is no doubt interesting. It may, however, be useful to point out that this “recently observed phenomenon” is identical with the heiligenschein, extensively discussed in the classical book of Pernter–Exner, Meteorologische Optik2, with several references to earlier reports. The first observation goes back to Winterfeld3 (1804), which can hardly be called “recent”. A brief description is also found in my book4.
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Howard, J. A., Nature, 224, 1102 (1969).
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Winterfeld, Gilbert's Annalen, 57 (1804).
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Pohn, H. A., Radin, H. W., and Wildey, R. L., Astrophys. Lett., 157, L 193 (1969).
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MINNAERT, M. Retro-reflexion. Nature 225, 718 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/225718a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/225718a0
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