https://freerepublic.com/tag/moondogs/ en-us Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:53:01 GMT Focus Forum 15 https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2982040/posts Explanation: Moonlight illuminates a snowy scene in this night land and skyscape made on January 17 from Lower Miller Creek, Alaska, USA. Overexposed near the mountainous western horizon is the first quarter Moon itself, surrounded by an icy halo and flanked left and right by moondogs. Sometimes called mock moons, a more scientific name for the luminous apparations is paraselenae (plural). Analogous to a sundog or parhelion, a paraselene is produced by moonlight refracted through thin, hexagonal, plate-shaped ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. As determined by the crystal geometry, paraselenae are seen at an angle of 22 degrees or... NASA https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2982040/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:53:01 GMT