Last night about 11pm there was a flat covering of cloud apart from the moon which was really bright surrounded by a very big perfect clear sky circle around it. I took the attached pic on my phone, sorry not very good quality. What causes this phenomenon?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_%28optical_phenomenon%29

Ice crystals suspended in the air, at a guess.

EDIT – beaten by <2 seconds, haha 😀

That’s Saturn on the left

It was lovely and bright as I ventured out at 3 for a night ride on my fat bike, still took lights but it was nice to be able to see across the fields as well, very nice experience, perfectly quiet apart from the crunch of fat bike tyres on a frosted snow covering.

Nice – An ex GF of many many moons ago was totally freaked out by this on a walk home down a deserted country lane was quite funny from my very pissed perspective. Commonly known as “A Cowl” around the moon.

Decent pic for phone.

The moon halo was stunning from Hampshire last night too. The cloud or ice particles diffused the light really well giving a very bright night.

I tried riding last night – so flipping cold my gear cable froze in its outer !

(and my fingers are still hurting now from being frozen)