No this isn’t metaphorical: last night at about midnight, the moon was directly overhead, and it was ringed by a very wide, perfect circle of light. Too geometrically perfect to be a cloud formation. And even in the dark sky I detected a hint of iridescence.
Did anybody else see it? Or has anybody else ever seen this phenomenon?
7 Likes
Like this?
Click to enlarge
I took this picture on February 11, 2014. Here are details about this photo and the phenomenon, which is cased by light being refracted by randomly-oriented ice crystals in the atmosphere.
Wikipedia has detailed information about the 22° halo, which is seen around both the Sun and Moon, and the rarer 46° halo which, being much fainter, is generally only visible around the Sun.
7 Likes
I KNEW you would know! Thanks.,
“I saw eternity the other night
Like a great ring of pure and endless light…”
—Vaughn Williams ( I think…)