Huge Circular Cloud around Full Moon Tonight

Anybody else notice the huge circular cloud around the full moon tonight? (Feb.9, 09) look outside and check it out...I tried taking a picture with my 8megapixel camera using night mode, but, the ring still doesn't show up.

I'm not implying it's UFO related, it's just that I've never noticed that phenomenon before...looks cool and strange.

Anybody here have an explanation?

[edit on 9-2-2009 by EclipseReloaded]

That is called a halo, I believe.
It means there is ice crystals in the upper atmophere.

Its not Ufo related. Move this?

In the UK here and havent seen the moon once tonight but perhaps it could be to do with thin cloud coverage and the light reflecting from the moon creating the apparent ring?

Ive seen some weird moon to cloud light formations in the past, anyone care to add or have a picture to show what the OP is describing?

reply to post by EclipseReloaded


This may be a bit hard to answer as you don't tell us where you are.
Whether it is a cloud, or the common halo effect we see around the moon now and then, they both would depend on the geographic location and weather to some degree.

It's simply ice crystals high in the atmosphere. They form a prism at 45 degrees to the moon's rays which reach your eyes and if you l;ook really closely you will see the band has a pale rainbow hue. It's just a type of rainbow high in the sky.

Either that or a bunch of UFOs playing ring a ring a rosey.

Take your pick

NDTV.com states:

Avid sky-gazers who had assembled at vantage positions across the country on Monday watched this year's first and "deepest" penumbral lunar eclipse.

Parts of western and southern India witnessed the eclipse when the moon was rising while the rest of the country saw the total duration of the eclipse, NGO Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) Director C B Devgun said.

Eastern Canada and US, however, missed the eclipse, while people in Alaska, Hawaii, Australia and East Asia saw the entire eclipse, he said.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is in a direct line between the sun and the moon and the shadow of the earth falls on the Moon, Devgun said, adding a penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when moon passes through penumbra, the lighter part of the earth's shadow.

The lighter part of Earth's shadow is called the "penumbra" and the totally dark part is called the "umbra".



Hope that helped.

Had one around the moon last night, missed out taking a picture of it since I was just getting home from work, and didn't want to wake anyone up more than I had to.

I looked at it again, it looks more like a light refraction with the inner ring kinda reddish looking...probably a halo effect.

Never seen that before.

Thanks Unrealised, good explanation

i saw a ring around it last night (2/8/09). i'm in the bay area, CA. there were scattered clouds in the sky...and when they passed by the moon...it created a "ring"bow around the moon. it was pretty sweet. it was a rainbow in the dark!

keep watching the skies!

A lunar eclipse does not look like a solar eclipse were you get the ring of light around the edges, in a lunar eclipse the moon turns reddish brown. So that does not explain what you are describing. What you stated in the OP sounds like Atmospheric Ice.

Originally posted by defcon5
That is called a halo, I believe.
It means there is ice crystals in the upper atmophere.

This is correct. It happend here in Texas not to long ago. Since it didnt happened here on the 9th im assuming when it happens it only visible to some.

reply to post by EclipseReloaded


I saw one similar in the Fall of 2008, very cool looking. It even started to make a circular rainbow with the Moonlight. One of the prettiest things I have seen in nature.

Here's a photo of the Moon taken Feb 9 2009 showing a typical halo:



Fisheye lens image curtesy of Space Weather. Ensure to select Feb 11 2009 issue.

WG3

[edit on 11-2-2009 by waveguide3]

[edit on 11-2-2009 by waveguide3]

they sprayed the hell out of atlanta the last couple of days, so i wasn't surprised to see the ring down here.

I took some pics on sunday night of the (nearly) full moon, what can I say, I thought it would be nice.


and I took a pic of the halo around the moon last year at my old place:



edit: Had my dates confused.

[edit on 11-2-2009 by Chiiru]

As many have speculated its nothing more than a hell of a lot of humidity in the atmospere at quantities not able to form clounds at the specific conditions.
Its common but at times it can be very eery.
The old people over here used to say that rain is comming when the ring is around the moon.