Ring around the Moon

[Davey-T]

Huge ring around the Moon ATM, tried to take a pic' but haven't got a wide enough lens.

Dave

[todd8137]

Moon dog

Pat

[Size9Hex]

Just spotted it too. To my limited knowledge it was one of these: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/22°_halo

Quite a nice to treat to see, and compensating to some extent for the lack of stars!

[BellP]

Just saw the same thing last night (Christmas Eve), in Whitstable Kent, my wife pointed it out, observed with two friends. I have taken some pics not great but you can see the effect, it was spectacular and i haven't seen it before. Will post the pics soon.

Anyone know what causes it, how often it happens?

Thanks, Peter

[BellP]

Apologies Size9Hex didn't see your link, didn't realise they are so common, especially more common than rainbows!

Thanks

Peter

[Size9Hex]

...didn't realise they are so common, especially more common than rainbows!

Nor me :-)

I've only seen a few over the years, despite they being apparently common, and to me they seem unusual enough (at least the really good ones anyway) to be special.

[chiltonstar]

I believe it was actually a 46 degree halo (attached image, full frame 28mm lens) - less common. The size on the image calculates up as close to 46 degrees. Handheld, so not too sharp, and the vast over-exposure of the Moon has made it look larger than it actually is.

Chris

[Scott]

I believe it was actually a 46 degree halo (attached image, full frame 28mm lens) - less common. The size on the image calculates up as close to 46 degrees. Handheld, so not too sharp, and the vast over-exposure of the Moon has made it look larger than it actually is.

Chris

looks like 22 deg to me. bearing in mind that the moon is 0.5 degree. I may well be wrong though, it happened once before

edit 1 I just looked at a fov calculator and it appears I'm wrong....sorry

edit 2 It appears I was wrong about being wrong.. 22 deg is the radius, not the diameter

[Size9Hex]

I believe it was actually a 46 degree halo (attached image, full frame 28mm lens) - less common. The size on the image calculates up as close to 46 degrees. Handheld, so not too sharp, and the vast over-exposure of the Moon has made it look larger than it actually is.

Chris

22 or 46. Good to learn there is another variation on the moon halo theme. Next time I'll need to pay some more attention to working out which one I'm looking at!

[Aussie Dave]

Have seen them every now and then. It's the double ring that are much rarer and the one's to capture with the larger ring being much fainter. In nearly 50 years I've only seen 2.

[Droogie 2001]

I saw this too. I did wonder if it was a Moon dog as I had heard about Sun dog's previously.

Tried to take an image with my iPhone but lens was not wide enough. Very interesting as I had not seen one before.

[Stub Mandrel]

Loads of 22 degree halos, nearly every time the moon peeked out last week.

[Garethr]

Saw this on 24th as well

Much bigger than the normal halo we see

It was massive never seen one this big before 

Gareth 

[Stub Mandrel]

"Here's one I prepared earlier"...

[chrisormerod]

i saw this it looked amazing showed the wife who wasnt as excited as me but thought it looked nice

[Moonshane]

I saw this nice one a while back

[calli]

I remember some years ago (maybe even 20) there was a halo on the moon which was caused not by the atmosphere but by a dust cloud in space. That was also in the news, incredible view.

Carsten

[LukeSkywatcher]

Ive seen a "proper" Lunar halo once. It was huge (meaning quite a distance away from and around the Moon). Seen a halo around the Moon lots of times when the light from it shines through thin clouds. I dont think it counts as a proper halo when shining through thin clouds. A proper halo happens on a crystal clear night when the light from the Moon reflects off of ice crystals in the atmosphere.

IIRC.

Ive also seen a complete solar halo once. Completely clear blue sky and huge halo all the way around the sun.

[BellP]

Here are images they are from my camera phone so not great but you get the idea, it was much clearer and more spectacular to view.

Pete