paraselene
Nov. 3rd, 2010 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordparaselene (par-eh-si-LEE-nee) - n., a bright spot on a lunar halo at the same angular elevation as the moon.
That is, horizontal with the moon about 22° away. Also commonly called a moon dog. These are much rarer than parhelion or sun dogs, as the moon has to be near full to be bright enough to have them. They are caused by light passing through flat hexagonal ice crystals in the atmosphere, which being flat tend to orient horizontally and so refract the brightness only in the two places, as opposed to long spires which orient any which way and so refract a full halo. From Late Latin (borrowed in the 1640s), coined from Greek para-, beside + selḗnē, moon. Plural is paraselenae, btw.
---L.
That is, horizontal with the moon about 22° away. Also commonly called a moon dog. These are much rarer than parhelion or sun dogs, as the moon has to be near full to be bright enough to have them. They are caused by light passing through flat hexagonal ice crystals in the atmosphere, which being flat tend to orient horizontally and so refract the brightness only in the two places, as opposed to long spires which orient any which way and so refract a full halo. From Late Latin (borrowed in the 1640s), coined from Greek para-, beside + selḗnē, moon. Plural is paraselenae, btw.
---L.
