MOON HALOES: When moonlight shines through icy clouds, the usual result is a simple pair of moondogs. But recently near Mt. Hekla, Iceland, photographer Agust Gudmundsson saw much more:
"It was a spectacular night," says Gudmundsson who needed two pictures to encompass the full display: #1, #2. "I don't know the names of all the optics in the photos, but they were fantastic."
Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley identifies them for us: "This truly beautiful display has everything. A lunar parhelic circle courses through the moon and its dog companions. There is a 22 degree halo topped by an upper tangent arc. Higher still there is a rare lunar circumzenithal arc and something seen even less often: a lunar supralateral arc." For a quick-look summary, click here.
"In one of the photos, there is a hole in the snow," notes Gudmundsson. "It is a snowhouse where my son Atli age 12 slept this amazing night!" Can you find it?
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