Starship Asterisk*

Alaskan Moondogs

Explanation: What's happened to the sky? Moonlight illuminates a snowy scene in this night land and skyscape made on 2013 January 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 apparitions 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 more from the Moon. Compared to the bright lunar disk, paraselenae are faint and easier to spot when the Moon is low.

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Finally! Something to howl at the earth, for a change.

Really nice shot...

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What's happened to the Earth? Look at those glints on the snow!

I deleted the reference to cirrus clouds in the NASA APOD text since there are likely few cirrus clouds between the observer and the mountain. I apologize for the oversight. - RJN

This is very nice, I have seen sundogs but never moondogs. I think Moonlady will like this one.