A solar phenomena occurred during my visit to Key West a few weeks ago. I was riding along Duval Street when I noticed people stopping to look up at the sky. It was freaky and disturbing, like a scene out of a space movie.

So, of course I had to poke my head out the window to see what made people get out their cars in the middle of the road. I looked up in the clear sky and saw a shaded rainbow ring around the sun. It scared the heck out of me. I just knew that we probably had about three hours left on the planet before the END OF THE WORLD.

Actually, I picked up the phone and called a friend who was standing next to someone who knew someone at the National Weather Service. Its kinda like a cousin’s cousin’s uncle thing. The NWS explained that the ring was a product of ice crystals in the atmosphere mixed with smoke from the Yucatan. Ummm. Ok. The sky was clear. Something fishy was going on.

Me being the nosey Mama that I am, I dug around a bit and met a guy who is a former journalist. He admitted that he had been conducting his own investigation into this occurrence.

The ring around the sun that seemed to be shaded a bit inside was actually a military experiment to see what fallout would look like. The substance is supposed to be made of clay and chalk.

I have no idea what to believe, but that sure was a pretty rainbow around the sun. I just hope that pretty rainbow isn’t harmful and I’m glad to know it wasn’t some iridescent mother ship hovering over Key West.