LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Wednesday night, Lake County’s nighttime sky was graced not just by a big, beautiful moon, but by a moon with a halo.

County resident Dwain Goforth captured this picture of a lunar halo and the moon, with the planet Jupiter pictured up to the right of it.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the halo occurs when light refracts through tiny, hexagonal-shaped ice crystals contained in thin, high altitude clouds.

The light refracts 22 degrees, which NASA said corresponds to the moon halo’s radius.

The effect is not uncommon, NASA reported.

The Farmer’s Almanac said weather lore holds that lunar halos are a precursor of stormy weather, noting that cirrus and cirrostratus clouds – which contain the tiny crystals – often come before storms.

 

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