Lunar Halo Lights Up Orion in Skywatcher Photo

On a perfectly still winter night, the famous constellation Orion shone around a beautiful moon halo in a photograph taken by a Japanese amateur astronomer.

The image shows the stars of Orion, the mighty hunter in the top right, along with the constellations Taurus (the bull) above it and Canis Major (the big dog) below it. The three constellations surround the glowing lunar halo in a stunning photo taken by astrophotographer Shingo Takei from Japan's Nagano prefecture.

Lunar and solar halos are caused when light passes through ice crystals formed in clouds in Earth's atmosphere. Ice crystals in a high, thin layer of cirrus clouds bend the light at a specific angle like a lens. Since each crystal has a similar hexagonal shape, light that enters typically refracts 22 degrees, creating the round halo shape. Such halos are fairly common in the night sky.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.

Nina Sen is a freelance writer and producer who covered night sky photography and astronomy for Space.com. She began writing and producing content for Space.com in 2011 with a focus on story and image production, as well as amazing space photos captured by NASA telescopes and other missions. Her work also includes coverage of amazing images by astrophotographers that showcase the night sky's beauty.