[neilep (OP)]

Dearest Moonologists and Circle Fetishists,

A few nights ago as I was arriving home (late) from work I looked up and saw the moon surrounded by this circly glowy thing !...I've seen it many times but for some reason I felt that the circumference of this circly glowy thing was the biggest I had seen ? It was so big I had to take two piccys and create a composite just for ewe ! (note: ewe may have to turn the lights off in the room to view it as the circle is dim in the piccy)

Here it is !


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The Circly Glowy thing I Saw A Few Nights Ago !


Nice eh ?...Being delivered next Tuesday to adorn the top of my Chrimbo tree

I have a few kweschuns about the circly glowy thing.

What's it called ?   

What is it ?

Does the circumference ever change or did it appear to be an illusion thing ?


whajafink ?


Thanks peeps.....ewe're all great !



Hugs and shmishes


mwah mwah mwah



neil
Moonlight Becomes Ewe
It Goes With Your Hair
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[CliffordK]

You are seeing a "Lunar Halo".

halos are a sign of high thin cirrus clouds drifting 20,000 feet or more above our heads. These clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals. The halos you see are glints of light from these ice crystals, which have to be oriented and positioned just so with respect to your eye, in order for the halo to appear.

[neilep (OP)]

You are seeing a "Lunar Halo".

halos are a sign of high thin cirrus clouds drifting 20,000 feet or more above our heads. These clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals. The halos you see are glints of light from these ice crystals, which have to be oriented and positioned just so with respect to your eye, in order for the halo to appear.

Super fabby answer CliffordK...Thank ewe very much !!..yayyy !!.....

Seeing as the quote is referring to cirrus clouds that are 20,000 feet or more above...do ewe think this could then answer my query regarding the change in circumference ?

[BenV]

I was lucky enough to see this lunar rainbow while at Victoria Falls in Zambia:

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It may look like daylight, but that's a 30 second exposure during dark night lit by a full moon.  The moonlight is bright enough to create rainbows in the spray from the falls.  The light on the horizon is Victoria Falls town in Zimbabwe.

[imatfaal]

Great picture Ben. What is the red thing moving around on the right of the scene?

I wonder if you could send it to Walter Lewin at MIT - he makes a hobby of collecting and explaining rainbow photos and photos of other similar phenomena, and gives a special lecture to his first year physics course on rainbows.  the recording I saw did not have a moon rainbow - and I cannot believe that Prof Walter wouldn't be thrilled to have one in his collection. 

Especially as it is very clear that it is brighter within the bow than outside the bow - which is normally difficult to discern with normal daylight photos

[RD]

Shouldn't it be spraybow rather than rainbow  []

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[Geezer]

Wait a minute! Where did the geezer with the red laser pointer go?

[BenV]

I believe the red stuff that RD has so kindly 'shopped out for me is a thin branch, briefly lit by someone else's red autofocus light - how they thought flash photography would work in that situation, I've no idea.

RD's spot on the money as usual - it should be a spraybow.