This evening about 8.30pm there appeared the most beautiful halo around the moon.
Today the moon is 91.2%, so nearly full. It rose at around 15.40 this afternoon.
I had just gone to let my dogs out in to the garden when I noticed a ring around the moon.
After doing some research I learnt it’s called a 22 degrees halo because the ring has a radius of approximately 22° around the moon. You can also see them around the sun sometimes.
The halo is a sign of high thin cirrus clouds around 20,000 feet up in the sky. The clouds hold millions of minute ice crystals that are refracted by light causing the halo to be visible.
Interesting how the sky surrounding the halo is darker than the rest of the sky and how there is a patch of colour just above the roof.
Appleton Wildlife Diary by Alex White 
Aren’t we lucky that nature occasionally treats us to these brief but beautiful sights. I find it fascinating that the light is different inside and outside the halo – you get this with rainbows too, and even more so with a double rainbow where the light between the two rainbows is much darker.
Now that you have looked into what causes a halo around the moon, you may be interested to research “sun dogs” (parhelion) and, if you are interested, their part in English history (Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, 2 Feb 1461).
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That’s interesting. I saw a sundog a few years ago.
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