In this creative shot, photographer Steve Nilsen shines his flashlight towards the moon as a beautiful halo is also seen encircling the moon. This phenomenon is known as a ‘moon ring’ or ‘winter halo’. It forms as light is refracted in millions of randomly oriented hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. The halo is large and the radius is roughly the size of an outstretched hand at arm’s length. For more info, check out Wikipedia’s article on the 22° halo.

The photograph was taken in Kvæfjord, Troms, North Norway on February 19, 2013 with a Canon EOS 5D mark III. Lens was a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II and the settings were: 14 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 320, 16mm.

For more fascinating shots of the sky, space and stars, check out the realtime image gallery at Spaceweather.com