Description
Captured last night over Strabane & Lifford, this 22° moon halo is an optical phenomenon that belongs to the family of ice crystal halos in the form of a ring with a radius of approximately 22° around the Moon. When visible around the moon it is called a ‘moon ring’ or ‘moon halo’. It forms as the moonlight is refracted in millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere.
For years I have heard of this phenomenon although never actually seen it myself until the opportunity finally arose last night at 10.15pm. Wasting not a second I grabbed my camera equipment & ran out into a local farmers field to capture this one photo just in the nick of time before it all defused shortly afterwards!
