Lunar Corona Over Turin, Italy

December 27, 2014

DSC_6917-arcobaleno sopra torino

Photographer: Giorgia Hofer; Giorgia's Web site
Summary Authors: Giorgia Hofer; Jim Foster

December 2014 Viewer's ChoiceSeveral colorful rings surround the aureole of this lunar corona observed above the city of Turin, Italy on the night of November 2014. The Moon is a little more than half-illuminated (waxing gibbous), but it appears fuller since the image is slightly overexposed to capture the lovely color of the coronal rings. Lunar coronas are frequently sighted whenever mid-level clouds, composed of very fine water droplets, move in front of the lunar disk. Like the cloudbow and glory, coronas result from diffraction of sunlight by the minute droplets.

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