A lunar halo

This must be my earliest blip ever, 15 minutes into the new day! Just as I was going to bed I noticed that the moon was surrounded by a distinct halo that just begged to be photographed! The result is pretty poor, being hand held, but the best that I could do at the time.

There’s an old weather saying that a ring around the moon means rain soon. There’s some truth to this saying;  halos are a sign of high thin cirrus clouds drifting 20,000 feet or more above our heads. and these often precede bad weather. Having said that, the sun has been shining all day!

Cirrus clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals. The halos are caused by both refraction and reflection of light within the ice crystals.