Moon halo over Arizona
© Eliot HermanDecember 9, 2017 photos โ€“ 2 a.m. to dawn.
Halos around the sun or moon are caused by ice crystals, like those in high cirrus clouds. Sometimes you can't see clouds, but - in these photos - you can.

Eliot Herman is Tucson, Arizona has been working all year to compile a series of images of every major meteor shower in 2017. So last weekend, as this week's Geminid meteor shower was rising to its peak, he had his automatic camera set-up running all night. You can see one result in the images above. He didn't catch a Geminid (although he did catch a random meteor, which exploded as it fell). But he caught something equally wonderful, a long-lasting halo around the moon.

Eliot said the halo lasted from 2 a.m. to dawn. You can see twilight coming up in the bottom right image. Then, he said, the halo just: "... blinked out."

Thank you, Eliot!

By the way, it must be lunar halo weather in Tucson. Check out this interesting halo photo, also by Eliot Herman, from late November.

Bottom line: Series of photos of a long-lasting lunar halo over Tucson, Arizona, December 9, 2017.