Explanation:
Lighting the night last Tuesday, February's
Full Moon is
sometimes called the Snow Moon.
But the Moon
was not quite full in this mosaicked skyscape
recorded on February 2 south of Budapest, Hungary,
and there was no snow either.
Still, thin clouds of ice crystals hung in the cold,
wintry sky creating this gorgeous lunar halo.
Refraction of moonlight by the six-sided
crystals produce the
slightly colored halo with its characteristic radius of
22 degrees.
Just below the Moon is bright star Aldebaran.
Also well within
the halo at the right is the Pleiades star cluster.
At the lower left, near the halo's edge lie the
stars of Orion
with bright Capella, alpha star of the
constellation Auriga,
just beyond the halo near the top of the frame.
