© Angi Wildt
Both are the result of high cirrus clouds, ice crystals and a combination of refraction and reflection.
The common wisdom about moon or sun halos is that they are indicative of a coming rain storm or even snow. That's not always so, as today represents. The forecast for the Oregon coast tonight is not for rain but mostly clear skies, but fog after midnight.
According to EarthSky.org, those high clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals. Like many Oregon coast sky phenomena - such as the Green Flash at Sunset - halos are made by refraction, which means the splitting of light. However here, the ice crystals also cause reflection, where sunlight is sparkling off the crystals.
© Angi Wildt
Moon halos are sometimes at least as stunning, and they too are the result of tiny ice crystals lurking high in the sky, usually around 20,000 feet above and existing as thin, wispy clouds. These come in two flavors: a giant, whitish ring around the moon, or a blob of colors surrounding the moon. Both require a thin layer of clouds that does essentially the same thing in terms of refraction that a sun dog or sun halo does.
With a moon halo, the color is often washed out and more like a glowing ring because the moon isn't nearly as bright as the sun. Many of the multicolored forms are much smaller, but they seem to have a rainbow full of colors. Amusingly, they can also resemble Pac Man in the sky.
While moon halos often mean some incoming weather system, as mentioned before that is not always the case. The photo below was taken in Depoe Bay on a September night when the weather was warm, and in fact the following day had sunny skies and temps near a balmy 70 degrees
The "ice crystal" rings happen when it's really, really cold and something we seldom see this far south. It's common in higher, cold latitudes in the winter. No ice crystals even up at that elevation right now... In fact we've had some of days that were very hot this month...hot and dry for the oregon coast.
It's amazing how people who live in nature can look at what's happening all around them and chalk it up to whatever they are told by "official sources".
And nobody even thinks to question why those large, unmarked jets keep flying back and forth, 3 and 4 at the same time, in the skies leaving big fluffy trails that spread out and drop down. We are not on any commercial flight paths...safe to say, pretty much in a commercial airline dead zone...which is true for almost the entire Oregon coast. And if you go to try to find out anything about those planes on the live flight trackers you will see ZERO planes in the area let alone planes flying back and forth like the ones here.
[Link]
Unlisted, unmarked = military contractors.