Hyderabad, on Wednesday, witnessed the “22-degree circular Halo”. Marvelling at the colourful rings, people from the city took to social media and shared images of the solar halo. This unusual solar spectacle appears when dispersed white light passes through ice crystals present in the upper levels of the cirrus clouds.

This dispersion causes the halo to colour. The halo appears 22-degrees from the sun or moon hence the name.

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Light enters from one side of the crystals and exists from the other causing it to bend twice by 22 degrees from its original point. This allows it to form a ring of light. 

The lunar halos are mostly colourless as the moonlight is not very bright. 

The same phenomenon was witnessed in Bengaluru on May 24, as well.