Atmospheric diffraction - Definition and Overview

Sunrise animation (15 seconds/frame)

Solar Diffraction Ring

Light passing through thin clouds made up of uniform size water droplets can cause diffraction rings to appear around the sun and moon.

The photo (right) shows a diffraction ring around the rising sun. A layer of thin clouds that caused it, and it dramatically disappeared when the sun rose high enough.

Lunar Diffraction Ring

This 1/10th second picture shows an overexposed full moon. The moon is in thin clouds which glow with a white disk surrounded by a red ring. A longer exposure would show more faint colors outside the red ring.