09:54 AM PDT on Monday, June 5, 2006

KING5.com and KREM.com Staff

Mike Schumacher

The sundog was seen by people in the Spokane area on Saturday afternoon.

SPOKANE - The KREM newsroom in Spokane was flooded Saturday afternoon with excited viewer calls, describing a rare spectacle of Mother Nature in the sky.

The “sun dog,” also known as mock suns or parhelia, first appeared in West Spokane around noon. It moved all the way across the Spokane Valley and into Stateline, Idaho.

A sundog is a rainbow-like spot in a cirrus cloud, which is mostly made up of tiny particles of ice.

"It works as the same fashion as a rainbow, but in a rainbow you have liquid water. In this case you have ice crystals which act as little prisms," said meteorlogist Rich Marriott.

Viewers sent in their photos of the sundog as it moved through the area.

Many didn't know what it was, calling it everything from a "fly away rainbow," to a "rainless rainbow" to a "sky prism."

Hannah Shedd, who lives in the Spokane Valley, said she had no idea what she was seeing.

"I was outside and some some very interesting things going on in the sky, so I grabbed my camera," she said.

Jyn Meyer was packing up her garage sale when she saw the beautiful display.

"It was changing constantly and as clouds passed over it, it got really rally bright orange and red," she said.

Nanette Graupner saw it from south Spokane.

"We watched as the colors changed and moved about the sky for at least a half hour in and out of the clouds," she said.

A few people knew exactly what they were seeing.

"It's the largest and most pronounced sun dog that I have seen," said Marc Martyn, who took a photo at Medical Lake.