See the Diffraction of Moon Light at Night

  • Thread starter Thread starter pmehnati
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Diffraction Moon
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on observing the diffraction of moonlight during cloudy nights, specifically the colorful circles around the moon. Participants clarify that the phenomenon is not caused by diffraction but rather by refraction of light through ice crystals in the atmosphere, creating a halo effect. The correct angles of incidence and reflection for the moon, the ice crystals, and the observer are crucial for this optical phenomenon. A link to a Wikipedia article on halos is provided for further reference. The conversation concludes with the original poster confirming that they were indeed referring to the halo effect.
pmehnati
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Hi
At night when you watch moon in cloudy weather you will see the diffraction of moon light around it in circle form and so the colorful circles . Please explaine me the physics of it.
Thancks.
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
It's a matter of being at the correct angle - incidence and reflection -for the moon, ring (ice crystals) and observer.
 
Thanks for your answet .It was what I want (halo)
 
Is a homemade radio telescope realistic? There seems to be a confluence of multiple technologies that makes the situation better than when I was a wee lad: software-defined radio (SDR), the easy availability of satellite dishes, surveillance drives, and fast CPUs. Let's take a step back - it is trivial to see the sun in radio. An old analog TV, a set of "rabbit ears" antenna, and you're good to go. Point the antenna at the sun (i.e. the ears are perpendicular to it) and there is...
3I/ATLAS, also known as C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and formerly designated as A11pl3Z, is an iinterstellar comet. It was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) station at Río Hurtado, Chile on 1 July 2025. Note: it was mentioned (as A11pl3Z) by DaveE in a new member's introductory thread. https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/brian-cox-lead-me-here.1081670/post-7274146 https://earthsky.org/space/new-interstellar-object-candidate-heading-toward-the-sun-a11pl3z/ One...
Back
Top