Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-21-03

NASA ^ | 3-21-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 March 21

Stars and Planets in the Halo of the Moon
Credit & Copyright: Lauri Kangas

Explanation: Photographed on March 13th from Caledon, Ontario, Canada, a bright Moon was surrounded by this lovely halo. Planet Jupiter and stars Procyon, Castor, and Pollux also appear within the circle of lunar light. Castor and Pollux, twins in Greek Mythology, are appropriately bright stars of the constellation Gemini while Procyon is the brightest star in Canis Minor. The circular halo is produced by six-sided ice crystals in thin high-altitude clouds, which refract the moonlight and give the halo a characteristic radius of 22 degrees. For persistent skygazers such apparitions are relatively easy to see when the Moon and Sun illuminate planet Earth's skies.

[petuniasevan]

By all means click on the links above, especially "such apparitions" and "six-sided ice crystals"

This site has lots of photos, not only of atmospheric optics, but of lightning and clouds, plus some astrophotography.

weather-photography

I just bought an expensive new toy I will try out when it stops being cloudy/foggy. It's a Sony Mavica digital camera -- it burns images onto a mini CD-R or CD-RW. It's a great thing! I can't wait to experiment with the settings and extras...

[petuniasevan]

[xJones]

I just bought an expensive new toy I will try out when it stops being cloudy/foggy. It's a Sony Mavica digital camera -- it burns images onto a mini CD-R or CD-RW. It's a great thing! I can't wait to experiment with the settings and extras...

Your photos will be great! Thanks in advance for sharing.

[firewalk]

Good morning, thanks for the ping

[trussell]

Even with the coverage of the war, this is still my favorite thread. Please keep them coming.

[RightWhale]

Note that inside the moon halo the sky is dark, but outside the halo the sky is bright. The light for the halo is essentially robbed from the interior of the halo and redistributed to the halo ring and outside the halo. The same display can be seen around the sun, but the sun display is much brighter and has regions of color and other regions of pure white. I have looked for color in the moon ring, but apparently the display is not bright enough for my eye to detect color in the moon halo. Perhaps your camera will pick up some color there. Look to the right and to the left parallel to the horizon on the ring; if there are some light clouds there it might help. I don't believe anyone has seen color in the moon halo, but it ought to be there.