Mendocino Coast’s celestial photographer Judy Valadao once again reminds residents of the North Coast of the expansiveness of our universe with her other-worldly photos of this morning’s “lunar halo”, also known as a “moonbow.”
Valadao described the factors that contribute to the visual phenomenon known as a “lunar halo”:
Earlier the moon had a visible “moonbow” “lunar halo” which is caused by the refraction, reflection, and dispersion of light through ice particles suspended within thin, wispy, high altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. I missed the best of it by about 40 minutes.
Moongiant.com characterized the current lunar phase as the “Waning Gibbous” phase:
The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is a Waning Gibbous Phase. This is the first phase after the Full Moon occurs. It lasts roughly 7 days with the Moon’s illumination growing smaller each day until the Moon becomes a Last Quarter Moon with a illumination of 50%. The average Moon rise for this phase is between 9am and Midnight depending on the age of the phase. The moon rises later and later each night setting after sunrise in the morning. During this phase the Moon can also be seen in the early morning daylight hours on the western horizon.
