May 16, 2008
Somewhere above you, light is arriving from places so distant their names feel like poetry.
Circles in the Sky
Birthday · May 16, 2008
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
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APOD published May 16, 2008. Credit: Jean-Marc Lecleire. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Gazing skyward on a sunny day in May, photographer Jean-Marc Lecleire captured this engaging display of ice halos forming complete circles in the sky. Recorded with a fish-eye lens from a spot near the grand Château de Chambord in France, the picture looks straight up, spanning almost 180 degrees from horizon to horizon. Surrounding the Sun is a halo formed by sunlight refracting through hexagonal-shaped ice crystals in high, thin clouds. The halo is circular and exactly 22 degrees in radius, but it looks squashed because of the distortion of the extremely wide-angle lens. Surrounding the zenith (the point directly above the observer) and always at the same altitude as the Sun is a lovely parhelic circle, caused by sunlight reflecting from ice crystals with nearly vertical faces. On average more common than rainbows, beautiful ice halos can often be seen in planet Earth's sky by those who know how to look for them.
Image credit: Jean-Marc Lecleire