A lunar halo has been spotted in Dorset skies.
Last night, a large ring could be seen around the moon across the county.
A halo around the moon appears when a thin layer of cirrus cloud made up of ice crystals moves across the sky.
Refraction of the light by the ice crystals causes the halo to form.
Echo Camera Club member Sharon Wheeler captured a fantastic image of the phenomenon.
She took the photo from her garden, describing the sight as ‘amazing.’
According to the met office, ‘haloes require ice crystals to form - either from high cirrus cloud of free falling crystals.
‘Typically, sunlight or moonlight is reflected by ice crystals producing a white halo. However, if the light rays strike the light at a particular angle, some light may be refracted. In such situations the halo will have a faint colouration.’
In the past haloes and other atmospheric phenomena were used as a form of weather forecasting before the development of meteorology.
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