Interesting Cloud/Moon effect.... (Photos)

Evening chaps,

This evening, being Halloween and all, I was outside scaring off the local kids. I was heading back to the house to fill up with more sweets when I noticed that the clouds in the sky had parted forming a perfect circle around the moon.

I have never seen anything like this before... I mean, I have seen the moon poking through the clouds... But this is very different.
Its hard to judge the diameter of this circle, but easily if not more, 1km+.

I asked around the neighbours who had obviously picked up on my curious looks upwards and they neither had experienced a sighting quite like it
One suggested that it was a sign of an impending storm, which indecently here in the UK we do have a rather severe weather warning in affect for early tomorrow morning.
It certainly sparked memory or the film "The Day After Tomorrow" where they are in the eye of the storm....

Anyhow, ill leave you to judge, but if anyone can explain it that would be great
I'm probably just being a fool and this is a common weather phenomena lol - Or not....








Please note that in some of the images, you can see plane trails and in some cases plane nav. lights.. Should give you an indication of the size of the circle perhaps.
Photos were taken with a Canon 450D w/ 18-55mm lens @ 18mm. Unfortunately due to the nature of the semi wide angle, it does not do the size of the circle any justice.
Also, I rarely take pictures at night time, so I was a bit nooby with the settings
Lastly lol - I have reduced the size of the images due to issues when uploading. If needed I can and will provide the original 5mb+ files.

Klis

[edit on 31/10/2009 by Kliskey]

[edit on 31-10-2009 by james420]

It's called moon dog. You can see other images here:

images.google.com...

This is a "lunar halo", and it is caused by ice crystals. I live in Norway, and during the winter time a ring around the moon often predicts snow.

A lunar halo is caused by the refraction, reflection, and dispersion of light through ice particles suspended within thin, wispy, high altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. As light passes through these hexagon-shaped ice crystals it is bent at a 22 degree angle, creating a halo 22 degrees in radius (or 44 degrees in diameter). A double halo, sometimes with spokes, may be seen on rare occasions when light reflects off water or ice.

The prism effect of light passing through these six-sided ice crystals separates the light into its various colors, resulting in a halo tinged with very pale rainbow colors with red on the inside and blue on the outside. The phenomenon of a lunar halo is similar to a rainbow produced by sunlight and rain falling between your eye and the sun.

Weather lore says a lunar halo is the precursor of impending unsettled weather, especially during the winter months. This is often proved true, as cirrus and cirrostratus clouds generally precede rain and storm systems.

www.farmersalmanac.com...

Cool - Thanks for the responses

Apparently they are quite a rare sighting, so I am certainly glad nature provided me with the privilege this evening

A little more info here

www.paraselene.de...

Isn't that just cloud cover diffusing the light? It's cloudy over here in N Ireland too, but you can still make our the moon through the clouds, it's just blurry.

Excellent pictures - lunar halos are not easy to photograph

They're usually indicative of aproaching rain (or as ziggy says, snow)

hey man i'm seeing it too right over my house. SE England its getting more prominant in the sky now looks cool.

Originally posted by iwannaseethisshipgodown
hey man i'm seeing it too right over my house. SE England its getting more prominant in the sky now looks cool.

Oops, forgot to mention that I am in West Sussex. So I would imagine that most in the South East will be able to view it, if its still there

Cracking pictures Gromit!

I'm in the UK too, saw one of these about 2 weeks ago, and was just... awestruck!

I'd never seen one of these before. Made me feel quite special

Ahh .. so thats what they were. I noticed them to. Nice pics

[edit on 31-10-2009 by VitalOverdose]