9 deg and 22 deg Lunar Halos.

[Ern Mainka]

I photographed these Lunar Halos on 5th April, Melbourne, Australia.

I've been looking on the Net for other 9deg and 22deg Lunar Halo pics but cannot seem to find any. Can anyone point me to other pics like this ?

I have seen rare 9deg and 22deg Solar Halo pics before but not a LUNAR one. How rare is this Lunar Halo combination ?

http://www.ernmphotography.com/Pages/At ... Index.html

Regards,
Ern

[Helga Schöps]

Hallo Ern,
congratulation, very beautiful photos!
Greetings from Helga

[Ern Mainka]

Thanks Helga. I'm still searching for any other known photos of a '9 degree Lunar (Moon) Halo'.

Does anyone know of any ?

You may notice in the photos there is a fair ammount of 'elipticle distortion' of the halo rings. I presume this is a lens distortion because the moon is so far off centre in the frame. Lens used was a 35-105mmm zoom lens at 35mm setting.

Ern

[Michael Ellestad]

Ern,

I am not sure that is a pyramidal 9 degree ring because it looks like it is offset instead of being centered around the moon. It could be a 9 degree tangent arc but I am not sure. Could you see the halo visually?


I have some good images of 9 degree halos and will be happy to email pics of them if you want.


Take Care,

Michael

[Ern Mainka]

Michael,
Yes, I'm not sure if it is either. This is why I'm trying to have it verified as a 9 degree halo or otherwise. The ring does look an odd elipticle shape. I put it down to being off centre in the frame but I can't seem to replicate this (at least looking through the viewfinder) when focusing on concentric circle objects just a few feet away. It has me puzzled. Could the distortion have been an atmospheric aberation ?

I don't think it is a tangent arc as it appears to encircle the moon in an elipse. It's quite odd looking to me.

No, I did not notice it at the time visually. The 22 deg halo was just an average faint one to the eye and as the 'supposed' 9 deg one is fainter I'm not really surprised I didn't notice it visually. I wasn't actually expecting one or looking for one. It's just come as a great surprise when I scanned the transparency and look at it closely on a light box. I'm still asking around to see if it is indeed a 9 degree halo. I'm not absolutely sure yet but I don't know what else it could be. The order of the color bands looks right with the red on the outside and it's definitely there on the tranny.

I know you have 9 deg SOLAR halos (I think I've seen them somewhere) but do you have a LUNAR one ? Email me a LUNAR one (only) if you have one.
Ern

[Benjamin Kühne]

Hi Ern,

There are 2 pictures of lunar 9 degree halos in our meteoros picture archive.
Here's a picture by Rainer Timm showing a weak 9 degree halo:



I'm also not sure about the 9 degree halo on our photo. The distance seems to be more than 9 degrees. Check out the picture on Pekka's Homepage ( http://www.polarimage.fi/phenom/ha03122b.jpg ), it's showing a well developed 9 degree halo.
I can't definitely say what it is, but I think it's a ring made by the lens

[Ern Mainka]

Yes Benjamin. After discussion about it, it now appears likely to be just a lens artefact (an internal lens reflection). The oddly shaped ellipticity of the inner ring just doesn't make sense in terms of it being a halo ring. It's interesting too that the color bands are reversed to that of the 22 deg ring - like that of a secondary rainbow - but unlike that of 'coronal' rings however they're something different again.

It's very odd though that in all the halo pictures I've taken, nothing like this has ever shown up before. It's had me almost convinced that it was an extra halo ring.

I think that settles it then, but I'll try and make sure 100% that that's all it was. Thanks for your opinions. More are still welcome.

Ern

[Ern Mainka]

Now I've been informed (by a reliable authority) that there ARE elliptical halos produced by pyramidal crystals with strange face angles but the halos are broad and indistinct - so it said. Amazing ! But because the one that appears in my photo is fairly sharply defined - and not broad - it is more likely to be just an artefact.
Ern