Thursday, December 3, 2009

Moon Halo | Moon Ring

I was heading home the other night on Dec. 1st and saw the
beautiful phenomenon of the moon halo up in the sky.
I quickly ran in the house grabbed my equipment and
was able to get these two shots before it dissipated.

I remember there being a superstition/folklore to the event.
This is what I was able to find about it:

When there is a ring around the moon bad weather usually follows within about 24-48 hours. This is because the halo or ring around the moon is caused by millions of tiny ice particles that form high in the upper atmosphere. The effect is produced because the crystals are scattering the moonlight by diffracting the light through their little hexagonal prisms. These ice crystals generally form in thin cirrus clouds that normally precede a warm front by one or two days. Typically, a warm front will be associated with a low pressure system which is commonly referred to as a storm.

Direct shot - Notice the beautiful colors in the ring.
Very Ominous...

2 comments:

Maxine said...

I saw this phenomena of the Moon Ring on February 27th 2010, and thought it was just amazing. Never seen anything like it before.

Anonymous said...

I saw the Moon Ring on February 27th 2010, and thought it was just amazing. I had never seen this phenomena before.