Yuri Beletsky in Chile captured this beauty on May 13, 2016. The star within the lunar halo is Regulus, brightest light in the constellation Leo the Lion. The bright one on the left is Procyon in Canis Minor, and the one on the right is the planet Jupiter. The moon is surrounded by what’s called a 22-degree halo. The halo you see here is caused by millions of ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. Yuri wrote:
Ice and fire on the sky.
The weather has been terrible here in the northern Chile for the past week and a half already.
Fortunately, tonight, it cleared a little bit, and we witnessed a beautiful halo around the moon. I took a wide-field panorama to show you both the halo and enormous cloud structure.
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
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