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One of the best places to spot the optical effect known as a glory is from the window of an aircraft. It appears as rings of colour around the plane’s shadow cast onto clouds below. Cristina Gomes spotted this glory as she was coming in to land at São Paulo, Brazil. The optical effect results from the backscattering of light by the cloud’s tiny droplets, which involves a combination of different optical effects: reflection, refraction, diffraction, and the skimming of light waves along the surface of water droplets. Let’s not worry about optics at this stage in the flight. The seatbelt sign is now illuminated. Cabin crew, prepare for landing and cross check.