At school, Michael Lavery (Member 60,779) was taught about the threat posed by the hole in the ozone layer and how it would affect where he lived in New Zealand. And so, one day, when Michael and his friends saw a big ring around the Sun, ‘Naturally, we knew exactly what this was,’ he told us. ‘It was the ozone hole. What else could it be?’ Twenty years later, he came across the Cloud Appreciation Society and read about 22-degree halos, the large circular rings of light that can appear as light from the Sun or Moon shines through prism-like ice crystals in clouds. ‘The memory came rushing back,’ Michael said, ‘and I suddenly realised what we really saw that day. Now, whenever I see one of these halos, I get a bit of enjoyment out of that memory resurfacing.’
A bright 22-degree halo around the Sun as it shines through Cirrus fibratus clouds over San Carlos, Falkland Islands spotted by Michael Lavery (Member 60,779). The wide-angle lens of Michael’s camera distorted the shape of the light effect, which would, in reality, have appeared as a perfectly geometric circle.
