by APOD Robot » Sat Feb 11, 2012 5:06 am
A February Moon Halo
Explanation: Lighting the night last Tuesday, February's
Full Moon is sometimes called the Snow Moon.
But the Moon was not quite full in this mosaicked skyscape recorded on February 2 south of Budapest, Hungary, and there was no snow either. Still, thin clouds of ice crystals hung in the cold, wintry sky creating this gorgeous
lunar halo. Refraction of moonlight by the
six-sided crystals produce the slightly colored halo with its characteristic radius of
22 degrees. Just below the Moon is bright star Aldebaran.
Also well within the halo at the right is the Pleiades star cluster. At the lower left, near the halo's edge lie the
stars of Orion with bright Capella, alpha star of the
constellation Auriga, just beyond the halo near the top of the frame.
[/b]
[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120211.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_120211.jpg[/img] [size=150]A February Moon Halo[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110716.html]Lighting[/url] the night last Tuesday, February's [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120120.html]Full Moon[/url] is sometimes called the Snow Moon. [url=http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonwords/moonpoems.htm]But the Moon[/url] was not quite full in this mosaicked skyscape recorded on February 2 south of Budapest, Hungary, and there was no snow either. Still, thin clouds of ice crystals hung in the cold, wintry sky creating this gorgeous [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090213.html]lunar halo[/url]. Refraction of moonlight by the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061109.html]six-sided[/url] crystals produce the slightly colored halo with its characteristic radius of [url=http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/circular.htm]22 degrees[/url]. Just below the Moon is bright star Aldebaran. [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111117.html]Also well within[/url] the halo at the right is the Pleiades star cluster. At the lower left, near the halo's edge lie the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120119.html]stars of Orion[/url] with bright Capella, alpha star of the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091205.html]constellation Auriga[/url], just beyond the halo near the top of the frame.
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