As the Sun rises higher, the rays passing through the crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane. Their angle of deviation increases and the sundogs move further from the Sun. However, they always stay at the same elevation as the Sun. Sun dogs are red-colored at the side nearest the Sun. Farther out the colors grade to blue or violet. However, the colors overlap considerably and so are muted, rarely pure or saturated. The colors of the sun dog finally merge into the white of the parhelic circle (if the latter is visible).