Iridescent Contrail

Back in 2020 when I started taking an interest in, and practicing astrophotography, images of different optical phenomenon caught my attention. The beauty and colours of halos, rainbows, and iridescence was something that I fell for and started imaging those, whenever I had a chance.

I came across a few images of iridescent contrail and they looked "out of this world". Being someone living near an international airport, I had grown a passion of spotting flights from childhood. Contrails with rainbow colours soon became something I wanted to photograph, badly.

3 years later, in 2023, while my skills developed, I was yet to spot or photograph an iridescent contrail. On 19th July 2023, while I was photographing sundogs, I noticed a plane near the field of view, and I turned my camera towards it. To my utter surprise, I saw faint colours on the contrail. This was probably the moment I had been waiting for and luckily, I was able to grab a few images. The iridescence however was very faint and the colours were not as vibrant as I expected.

5 days later, on 24th July, I came across a faint 22-degree solar halo. While I was trying my best to capture a close-up shot of the halo with a telephoto lens, I spotted a flight. To my utter surprise, it had iridescence and the vibrant colours were visible with naked eyes. For the next 30 minutes, I managed to capture 3 such instances of iridescent contrails.

This image was my favourite of the lot and of course one of the most loved images of my portfolio.

I hope you enjoy the image, the colours, and the beauty. Clear skies!