Moonring and friends

Image #2765  2/06/06

This photograph shows a diffraction ring around the moon caused by water vapor in the upper atmosphere.  The moon is purposely overexposed to bring out the detail of the faint ring and also to expose some of the interesting celestial objects nearby.  These include Betelgeuse and the stars in the belt of the Orion constellation (lower right corner of the image), The Pleiades star cluster just above the moon, Mars just above the Pleiades.  Capella is visible at the 8:00 position and Aldebaran is the faint star just to the right of the moon. 

Exposure details:
   Canon EOS 20D camera
   Canon 17-40mm lens at 17mm
   f/7.1, 15 seconds, ISO 800