Any ideas what this is?

[sorrimen]

Hi guys

Just peeked out the window and saw this rather large and bright, though fainter than stars, blur. The moon was lower on the horizon and further to the right, so was it perhaps a reflecting on the moon on clouds? Is there any way for a star to be distorted this largely through cloud? Tried to get a look through my telescope but it wasn’t much more than a bright whispy blur. Also opened the window to make sure it wasn’t a reflection. Let me know what you think and if you’ve seen anything similar!

P.s. the black box is just to protect neighbours privacy

[sorrimen]

Have just realised the zoom quality on here isn’t phenomenal, but there are two stars in the picture as well, and it is much larger and actually a bit brighter than these. Slightly perplexed!

[VNA]

Hello, are you talking about the noon, where its light gets spread out because of the clouds?

[Geoff Barnes]

Hi @sorrimen, are you referring to the circled object in this image?. 

If so it looks like the moon shining through the thin clouds to me. 

[Knighty2112]

The moon behind the clouds, and the 2 stars look like aircraft lights as they are in front of the clouds given that your location is in the busy air corridor in that neck of the woods. 

[Wiu-Wiu]

Might help to include the time and direction of the picture, at least to try and identify the two stars - if that’s what they are, because those could probably just be reflections from all the glass the picture is taken through (windows, camera lenzes,…)
 

if you say the moon was further to the right, my thought would be a moondog, a strong reflection of the moon’s halo in the clouds. They usually occur on certain angles and distance to the moon’s position, so that would be a good thing to research first. 

[sorrimen]

Thanks for your comments all. I checked the moon’s position and it really did seem a bit too far off to be what I was looking at, though I hate these sorts of posts when people deny something they aren’t sure of so I can’t say for sure. The moondog idea certainly seems more akin to what I thought I was seeing, so glad to know it’s a phenomenon that exists. Thanks again all!

[Geoff Barnes]

The main problem with the moon dog theory is they are reflections caused by ice platelets in high altitude clouds and would require a full or mostly full moon.  

The clouds in your photos are low altitude altocumulus, which in your summer would almost certainly not have ice in them, just water vapour. Add to this the moon is currently only a thinnish crescent, so I would rule out that theory. 

[sorrimen]

Oh I see, suppose not then. I looked through a smaller scope I own and it definitely didn’t look like the moon behind clouds, but I suppose it must’ve been. Thanks guys.