Lunar halo rings seen through a chimney: diffraction or refraction?

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter verri vedhava
  • Start date Start date
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
2 replies · 2K views
verri vedhava
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
while i was going for a walk in the early morning,i saw moon through a white plain simple chunney.i observed rings around the moon.i think it is called halo and its due to diffraction.pls explain the phenomena in detail.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Typically ice crystals high in the atmosphere.

What is a "chunney"?
 
You may not have observed a halo, they are typical around 22 deg in diameter. What you may have seen is a luna corona, the most common are blue near the inner edge, changing to white and then redish brown at the outer edge (they somethimes have other colours referred to as iridecence), this is known as an aureole, caused by fine water droplets or, as HallsofIve stated previously, ice crystals diffracting the light.