a few months ago i remember coming home from a friends house and looking up at the moon. it had this perfectly circular ring around it. the ring itself was a light white color and transparent. has anyone ever heard of this or know what it might be? i've included a drawing i made in paint the night i saw it.

Though I am not a meterologist I guess it has something to do with meterology. If the atmosphere overhead at that night is a little different from normal, the light reflected from the sun would create some circle thing. You must have heard about that certain meterological conditions can create the strange vision of several suns hanging in the sky. Check this in some professional sites. Maybe you will find what you have seen.

Oddly i seen the same with the sun too.... DON'T DARE JUDGE ME WHY I LOOKED INTO THE SUN!! I just did and it had a ring around it that was darkish and blurry. my dad seen it too and so did some of my neighbors. But this was along time ago.

wtwt5237 is correct that this is meteorological in origin. It is called a halo, more specifically this is what is known as a 22^o circular halo. It occurs when there are ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. These refract light from the Moon (or as pointed out by Spartan7) the sun. Here is a rather nice site which expains halos and other related phenomena such as sun dogs: Atmospheric Optics.



No one will need to judge you. If you do it enough your own eyes will judge you as you could suffer permanent damage and partial loss of eye sight. A warning to others, do not stare directly into the sun and never look at it with telescopes or binoculars (unless using the correct filters). This can lead to light and, more importantly, heat being focused on the retina, causing that area to be burned. This will leave a permanent blind spot and a deterioration in eye sight

I was just having a bit of fun, its a trademark saying for me lol.

Fair enough, but on a subject like this I will always post such a warning. If I can stop just one person damaging there eyes it will be worth it.

Whenever there is a halo around the moon, it is a bad omen .

Only if you don't like ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.

lil fun thing you can do with binoculars and a scrap of paper.... hold the binoculars like you were going to look into the sun (dont look into the binoculars) then take the paper and place it by the eye piece and have the noculars loooking at the sun, and on the paper it should display the sun and you can make out sun spots and things... its pretty neat go this out of one of my kids books lol.

The projection method - the safest way to view the sun.

Thanks for that Jeremy. I usually include that advice when I make my warning posts but totally forgot this time.

Another way of projecting the sun, if you don not have binoculars, is to make a very small hole in a piece of card. Allow the light from the sun to pass thtough this hole on to a sheet of paper behind and you have a simple pin hole camera. Not as effective as using binoculars to project the image but it is safe.

always took it to mean that there's a good chance of rain soon

It was longed believed, prior to the advent of meteorological science, that Moondogs (paraselenes, or 22d haloes) were precursors of bad weather.
All they actually indicate is ice crystals in the upper atmosphere (cirrus clouds...above 3-6 miles, usually in the upper ranges), which tend to imply relatively high humidity aloft, because the ice condenses into cirrus type clouds and doesn't evaporate (much as a lingering contrail indicates the same humidity condition aloft in the troposphere).

This doesn't necessarily have any bearing on the future weather, and such conditions often exist independent of what's happening at the lower altitudes, where the vast majority of weather changes occur.

A note to anyone interested in the Sun and observing it:

Please listen to what Waspie and Jeremy have said!

They describe safe methods of observing the Sun. You NEVER want to attempt to look through binoculars or a telescope at the Sun (without proper and adequate filtration devices (which can be rather costly...so forget it unless you know what you're doing). You shall almost certainly suffer swift and permanent damage attempting such a thing...

My gym teacher was really worried about this when I used it back in the 70s to view a solar eclipse, but it can be quite effective. She though I was going to look at the sun, or some such.

Using it, we got a very clear indication of the eclipse as it traveled over the sun. Quite cool.

Who would want to? You'll go blind. Right?

i think that those rings we saw on moon and sun are because of the atmosphere and if it will be observe in space there will be no rings

You would be correct...

That would be a distinct possibilty...

Well that's what I was told.

A ring around the moon usually means rain within 24 hours. The ring is caused by the water in the atmosphere of earth. Next time you see the ring around the moon, pay attention to the weather.

Whoever told you was correct.
That was good information you received.

Thanks. But it was my parents who told me stuff like that. Common sense.