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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                  2022 January 2   
      
                       Quadruple Lunar Halo Over Winter Road   
                       Image Credit & Copyright: Dani Caxete   
      
      Explanation: Sometimes falling ice crystals make the atmosphere into a   
      giant lens causing arcs and halos to appear around the Sun or Moon. One   
      Saturday night in 2012 was just such a time near Madrid, Spain, where a   
      winter sky displayed not only a bright Moon but four rare lunar halos.   
      The brightest object, near the top of the featured image, is the Moon.   
      Light from the Moon refracts through tumbling hexagonal ice crystals   
      into a somewhat rare 22-degree halo seen surrounding the Moon.   
      Elongating the 22-degree arc horizontally is a more rare circumscribed   
      halo caused by column ice crystals. Even more rare, some moonlight   
      refracts through more distant tumbling ice crystals to form a (third)   
      rainbow-like arc 46 degrees from the Moon and appearing here just above   
      a picturesque winter landscape. Furthermore, part of a whole 46-degree   
      circular halo is also visible, so that an extremely rare -- especially   
      for the Moon -- quadruple halo was captured. Far in the background is a   
      famous winter skyscape that includes Sirius, the belt of Orion, and   
      Betelgeuse -- visible between the inner and outer arcs. Halos and arcs   
      typically last for minutes to hours, so if you do see one there should   
      be time to invite family, friends or neighbors to share your unusual   
      lensed vista of the sky.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: Saturn moonscape   
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          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
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