Cameras and the pictures they produce are everywhere these days. Most people carry a camera on their mobile phone and there are TV screens in all sorts of places.
It can't be long before they are in introduced into the toilets at the motorway service areas - TV screens I mean - I think the cameras are already there!
But as this picture of the moon shows - the cameras that most of us carry around are less than perfect when it comes to capturing the more challenging images.
We had arrived home late from a celebration dinner on Saturday night. I gazed-up at the full moon and was struck by a huge halo that encircled it. I suppose I have seen this phenomenon before, but this was particularly clear.
It's a pity that it did not show-up so clearly on a mobile phone camera and not even on my £70 Samsung pocket digital camera. But if you look closely you can at least see part of the halo.
When I saw it, I had an idea that it must be some kind of "moon-bow" caused by the moonlight being refracted through water vapour in the atmosphere.
My research tells me that this kind of halo always happens at an angle of 22 degrees to the moon and is caused by the light passing through water vapour, form of thin cirrus clouds, high-up in the atmosphere.
Maybe I should invest in a better camera. If you Google "moon halo" you will see much better pictures of the phenomenon from elsewhere in the world.
We live and learn...
Closure of the CUC in Liverpool - sad day
(Tue 03/01)
Banksy the religious bigot
(Thu 29/12)
The Big Yin is on his way... I can't wait
(Thu 10/11)
A tale of two museums
(Tue 30/08)
Rosie Cooper - we need more politicians like her
(Mon 06/06)
