Ring Around The Moon

I have never seen anything like this before, but i was told that this is common and there is a name for it?

Anyway i thought it was cool, in the picture there is the moon in the center of the picture and there is a massive faint ring around it. This was taken on an iphone 5 with only street lighting so its not that good.

Im not in any way good at taking photos as you can tell. And just to be clear its not lense flair.

It looked alot better just looking at it than it turned out on the phone.

reply to post by wlasikiewicz


Yeah, it's fairly common but a nice thing to see. Sometimes you can see a ring around the Sun too.
earthsky.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

Wow iPhone5 sucks balls, as expected lol.

reply to post by loves a conspiricy

iPhone 5 is perfect in daylight but its bad for night shots.

reply to post by wildespace

Thanx for that, those sites are really interesting.

woah deja vu.
i'm sure i've seen this thread before.
i'm gonna look around but i may be wrong.

you're answers may be here www.abovetopsecret.com...

so ice crystals in the atmosphere. hmmm

Ring Around The Moon

That means its going to rain or snow.

People really do not look up often. (NOT an aatack, as it is cool the first time noticed)

Seen this dozens of times.

Isn't it a sign uof high air pressure, a High weather front coming through.

Pretty much rains the next day after i always see them.

Its because of ice crystals.

Moon halos are caused by tiny ice crystals that have gathered twenty thousand feet above the ground, as thin, wispy clouds. These clouds are so thin, you might not notice them at night, if it weren’t for their effect on the moonlight. Incoming light rays from the moon are bent, or diffracted, by these ice crystals at an angle of 22 degrees, newsnidea.com...

I've seen it many times before.

Run for your lives its Nibiru sneaking up behind the moon.
Haha kidding, happens alot here in Australia and usually the next
day its the same with the sun.

reply to post by wlasikiewicz


OMG!!! Is that Nibiru at the 11:00 position near the Moon!

Seriously though, moon halos are not terribly uncommon (although not terribly common, either), and (I think) are more likely when the weather is cooler. Like another poster above said, that's not a dig on you for not ever noticing before, considering a moon halo isn't something that happens every day.

Moon halos are similar to sun halos (and sun dogs) as far as the mechanism that produces them -- the brightness of the moon (or the sun) refracting through water ice crystals:


Here is a website that explains atmospheric optical phenomenon, such as moon halos, Sun halos, and Sun dogs (the link is to the page on Moon halos):

Atmospheric Optics

You should make it a habit to check out the sky when you happen to be out at night. There are a lot of interesting astronomical and meteorological things going on up there...

...As the late Dr. Jack Horkheimer used to say "Keep looking up".

We tried to take a photo last night, it was so big though it was impossible to get into the picture.
Bare in mind we are expecting some frosts by the end of the week.