Its another warm night in Central Florida as this year without any break from the heat continues. Dense cirrus clouds stream across the night sky obscuring most stars and create a halo (or ring) around the moon. The cirrus clouds are outflow from Tropical Storm Cindy
The high cirrus clouds that are streaming across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico are +20,000 feet. These clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals. The ring around the moon (or halo) they create is caused by both refraction, or splitting of light, and also by reflection, or glints of light from the ice crystals.
The Moon is in Tarus but most of the stars of Tarus cannot be seen through the hazy light cast through the cirrus clouds. Aldebaran is the only Tarus star that is faintly visible. Aldebaran is an orange giant star located about 65 light years from Earth.
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The brightest object in tonight's sky aside from the Moon is Jupiter. Castor is faintly visible above the Moon. Castor is the second brightest star in the constellation Gemini and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky.
Procyon is visible above and to the south of the Moon. Procyon is the brightestt star in the constellation Canis Minor. To the naked eye, it appears to be a single star, the seventh brightest in the night sky. It is actually a binary star system consisting of a white main sequence star and a faint white dwarf companion. The reason for its brightness is not its intrinsic luminosity but its proximity to the Sun; at a distance of 3.5 pc or 11.41 light years, Procyon is one of our near neighbors. Procyon forms one of the three vertices of the Winter Triangle, along with Sirius and Betelgeuse.
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