Moon Halo

This past week there have been some pretty impressive halos around the Moon down here in chilly Melbs. Unfortunately I don't own a good camera so wasn't able to photograph it myself. I did, however, drag several relatives out into the cold and forced them to appreciate the sight. In this pic (from here) you can see Jupiter near the edge of the halo.

Moon halos are made up by light from the Moon being broken up into the colour spectrum by ice crystals in a cirrus cloud (in a similar way to how rainbows are formed by light refracting through water droplets). You can also get them around the Sun and apparently around street lights too (if the ice crystals are low enough).

In other astronomical news, there will be a full solar eclipse over China on 1 August (so not visible from here) and a partial lunar eclipse at about 6am on the morning of 16 August (visible in Australia at moonset).