Mystery in the sky above Nis: People photograph strange ring around the Moon, astronomers: "It's a bad sign"

Photo: Niske Vesti

The month of December and the New Year 's holiday will be remembered for the good weather and clear skies, and as far as the citizens of Nis are concerned, also because of a "strange" phenomenon. Last night they could see a "halo" around the Moon, and as the Alfa Astronomical Society points out, this ring of light that manypeople  have spotted is a well-known optical atmospheric phenomenon.

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"What is in the picture is called a halo. It's an optical phenomenon that occurs in Earth's atmosphere when the light of the Sun or the Moon passes through a thin layer of clouds which contain ice crystals," they told Niske Vesti.

A halo created in this way is usually approximately 22 arc degrees away from the Moon. Sometimes it happens that the crystals are not the same size and shape, so the refraction occurs at a different angle, usually at 46 degrees.

"All the optical phenomena related to the Moon, in the form of a change of color, appearance of a halo and the like, occur in Earth's atmosphere. Nothing actually happens with the Moon, but the presence of certain elements in the upper, mid or lower layers of the atmosphere make the Moon appear to change its color to a different shade or get a halo like the one in the picture," sources from the Alfa Astronomical Society said.

According to Professor Doctor Dragan Gajic, this phenomenon is not particularly good. It reveals the fact that the air is highly polluted. When the air is clean, he says, there is no "halo" around the Moon.

There is another, very similar phenomenon, which is called lunar coronae.

The moon's coronae are formed in a similar way to the halo, but are much smaller and located closer to the Moon's disk. This happens due to the passage of light through a thin layer of clouds at high altitudes, refraction from water droplets or particles of dust, smoke, pollen, etc. They are most often white, but all the colors of the rainbow can appear in the ring.

(Telegraf.rs)