Okay so I was sitting in this meeting Sunday Night and all of the sudden I get this phone call. So I sneakily reached into my pocket without my parents noticing… and much to my surprise my good friend Leslie Fowler was calling me. So once the meeting was over I called her back, and she was all like ‘KOLBY!! LOOK AT THE MOON!!!’ and so i did! And it was nuts! There was a giant ring around the Moon! I don’t think I have ever seen this before. So I wanted to figure out what in the heck is going on up there to make this happen. So i went to my number one source of knowledge, my Dad and he says that the Indians said it meant that it was going to rain. But this wasn’t enough for me! I wanted to know more about it then just that. So I did a little research!
Ring around the moon!
So the ring that you see appears when light passes through 6-sided ice crystals that are way up high in the atmosphere. The ice crystals come from high cirrus clouds around 20,000 feet. The crystals in these clouds act just a sequence shirt does in light, reflecting the light in different directions and bending the light just like a camera lens does.
Moon Ring Weather Folklore :
Old folklore says that a ring around the moon signifies bad weather is coming, which in many cases can and will be true. Now the reason why we can be so sure is because the ice crystals that cover the halo signify high altitude, thin cirrus clouds that normally precede a warm front by one or two days. Typically, a warm front will be associated with a low pressure system which is commonly referred to as a storm. So be ready for some stanky weather this week! But hey at least now you can rely on signs from the moon for bad weather instead of your broken shoulder that hurts everytime the weather changes. I know from personal experience.
Australia Moon Corona (Non alcoholic)
Moon Bow yay!
Pillars
Now these ice crytals not only just form rings, but some times if conditions are right you just might be able to see different formations in the sky. Like a pillar of light extending from both the north and south ends of the moon, or you can see a moon rainbow which i have never ever heard of but i would definitley want to witness one of them for myself. And the last one which you probably won’t ever see unless you visit Australia is called Australia Moon Corona…hence the name.
Now don’t think that all of this makes sense to me…cause most of it doesn’t! But I owe all of my information to http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonring/. So if you want to learn more then check this site out!
-Kolby Beck
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Kolby – As a retired Burley High School teacher – there were other schools in other states previously, but that’s another story – I am so pleased to see your writings and the writings of other students on this site. Your treatise about the “Ring around the Moon” is a refreshing deviation from the “texting” which is so prevalent these days. I am a language arts teacher and am particularly attuned to the refreshing ideas which are generated by persons in your age bracket. Your ideas are particularly refreshing. Go Burley – Go Kolby!!