Lunar halo, dark and mystical

The moon is already quite bright and will become brighter by Saturday, December 22, when the full moon and the solstice. This means that now is the time to see lunar halos. Paul Martini took a picture of one of them over the city of bluff in Utah.

"A stuffed coyote in the foreground will be burned on the night of the winter solstice, which this year will take place on 22 December," says Martini, who took the picture with a digital camera.

Moon halos are formed due to ice crystals in high clouds, which catch the rays of the moon light and refract them in 22-degree ring. A bright full moon are ideal for the formation of these halos, so the night sky before and after the solstice can often be illuminated by the moonlight rings. Look for them when you see thin Cirrus clouds drifting across the lunar disk.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»