Explanation:
A sea of clouds laps at rugged mountain peaks
of the French Pyrenees in this serene view from
Pic du Midi Observatory.
The time exposure was recorded on June 4, with
the constellations Sagittarius and
Scorpius shining in the starry night.
At the top right lies a faint, but colorful
moondog
or paraselene.
Analogous to a sundog or parhelion,
the paraselene
is produced by
moonlight shining through
thin, hexagonal-shaped ice crystals in high
cirrus clouds.
As determined by the ice crystal geometry, a bright
gibbous Moon illuminates the scene from beyond the
picture's right edge, 22 degrees from the lovely paraselene.
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