Moon over Dallas area last night.

[Wildcat]

Driving home from an 8th grade basketball game last night at around 7pm Central time, I noticed a striking sight. It was the moon low and large in the sky (moonrise was 6:48 PM CST over North Texas last night).

What made it unusual was that there was a coherent, straight beam projecting downward from the moon all the way to the horizon. I have never seen anything like this before. It was not a halo like you sometimes see caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. This was like a spotlight with a beam the same width as the moon pointing straight down to the horizon.

I posted on a local forum board to see who else saw it and several people replied that they did indeed see the same thing. As the moon climbed higher in the sky, the effect went away, but it was quite shocking at first to see this!

I'm wondering if anyone else in other areas of the U.S. saw anything like this at moonrise last night.

[Peregrinus]

Dear Wildcat, a picture is worth a million words....

[Wildcat]

(12-04-2009 11:47 AM)Peregrinus Wrote:  Dear Wildcat, a picture is worth a million words....

If only I had one! I was driving at the time and did not have a camera. Unfortunately, it did not occur to me to use my cell phone's low quality camera function...

I tried to describe it as best I could though. I will be watching again tonight in the event that the same conditions exist.

[Lorna]

hi wildcat
i think these are called pillars - googled to try and find a good photo as an example but maybe it's something that doesn't photograph well http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/moonpill.htm
sounds like an absolutely magical sight though

[Wildcat]

(12-04-2009 06:53 PM)Lorna Wrote:  hi wildcat
i think these are called pillars - googled to try and find a good photo as an example but maybe it's something that doesn't photograph well http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/moonpill.htm
sounds like an absolutely magical sight though

That's it, Lorna! Thank you for finding that. This particular moon pillar seen last night only extended below the moon giving the illusion that the moon was trying to "beam something up".

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http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonring/

Moon Pillars
Moon pillars can be seen when the moon is rising or setting near the horizon. They are pale shafts of light that extend out either above or below the moon. Pillars appear in the sky when ice crystals reflect light forward from a strong light source such as the moon. Those crystals with plate or column shapes provide an excellent surface from which the light may reflect toward the viewer's eyes. Because the light rays forming pillars are reflected, and not refracted, they take on the colour of the incident light.
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