Halos around the moon

Like the sun, the moon can also cause halos. But these halos are correspondingly fainter. At night the human eye mainly recognizes differences in brightness, but it hardly can distinguish colours. So halos around the moon often appear to be light grey, although they are actually colourful. In bright lunar halos, however, you can also see colours. Even the circumzenithal arc could sometimes be seen colourful with the naked eye. Stars are also visible through a thin cirrostratus layer. The exact position of the halo to the moon and the width of the halo can easily be measured by using the stars as a kind of position marks.

halo around the moon
Upper targent arc
and Parry arc around the moon.
Photo: Richard Löwenherz
circumzenithal arc around the moon
Circumzenithal arc around the moon
Photo: Richard Löwenherz