Lunar Beams

Reflected refraction of light.

This phenomenon is caused by moonlight refracted by ice crystals in the clouds. I have seen it before, but not with a halo so large.

When you think about those photons, they traveled from the sun, reflected off the moon, were refracted by the atmosphere, refracted again by the ice crystals in the clouds, then refracted again by the lens of the camera, until they were captured by the image sensor.

Posted on Sep 27
Written by Wayne Hartman