                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2022 May 14

                           Ice Halos by Moonlight
          Image Credit & Copyright: Alan Dyer, Amazingsky.com, TWAN

   Explanation: An almost full moon on April 15 brought these luminous
   apparitions to a northern spring night over Alberta Canada. On that
   night, bright moonlight refracted and reflected by hexagonal ice
   crystals in high clouds created a complex of halos and arcs more
   commonly seen by sunlight in daytime skies. While the colors of the
   arcs and moondogs or paraselenae were just visible to the unaided eye,
   a blend of exposures ranging from 30 seconds to 1/20 second was used to
   render this moonlit wide-angle skyscape. The Big Dipper at the top of
   the frame sits just above a smiling and rainbow-hued circumzenithal
   arc. With Arcturus left and Regulus toward the right the Moon is
   centered in its often spotted 22 degree halo. May 15 will also see the
   bright light of a Full Moon shining in Earth's night skies. Tomorrow's
   Full Moon will be dimmed for a while though, as it slides through
   Earth's shadow in a total lunar eclipse.

                    Watch: May 15-16 Total Lunar Eclipse
                   Tomorrow's picture: colors of the moon
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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