Moon Halo - 1

A 22°-radius halo surrounds the waxing gibbous Moon on Dec. 23, 1012. Such halos can occur when is a thin veil of high cirrus clouds covers the sky. Ice crystals suspended in the clouds act like tiny 6-sided prisms that refract the Moon's light to produce the halo. For more information, see the blog post Moon Halo.

The bright "star" to the left of the halo in the image above is the planet Jupiter. The constellation Orion is visible in the lower left corner. An additional image can be seen at Moon Halo - 2.

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