Blue Moon

November 5, 2015
Tonight taking Lilia out for our nightly stroll, I noticed a ring around the moon.  It was bluish in color.  I find the moon fascinating.  Back when I was 6 or 7 I was at my grandparents, Grammy asked me to go to the pantry and get the oyster crackers.  She had made my favorite!  Oyster Stew!  A big pot of the hot milk with plenty of oysters swimming in it!  The memories I have retained are about my grandparents!  When I went to the pantry, I looked out the window and this large face was staring in the window, of course I ran screaming and dove under Grammy's bed!  She went to look and started to laugh... It was "The Man in the Moon".   We know that there really isn't a man that lives there on the moon, but if you look closely you will see the crevices of the moon surface that do resemble a face of a man.  Now as I am older I do find myself looking up at the moon at night to see if I can spot the "Man in the Moon".  Not tonight, but I did notice the bluish ring around it.  I looked up what this was and it is a Lunar Halo.  This is the explanation I read.  Fascinating don't you think?

The folks at the Farmer’s Almanac have a great explanation of it, and say, “A lunar halo is caused by the refraction, reflection, and dispersion of light through ice particles suspended within thin, wispy, high altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. As light passes through these hexagon-shaped ice crystals, it is bent at a 22 degree angle, creating a halo 22 degrees in radius (or 44 degrees in diameter).”