Local Photographer Brent Mckean of 501 North Photography recently took an incredible picture of the moon that displays a number of interesting phenomena, and it’s been getting a lot of attention.

McKean says this particular photo captured the interest of a meteorologist from Harvard who then contacted him to explain everything that is going on in the shot.

"A normal moon halo would be a 22-degree arc which is pretty much a perfect circle," says McKean, "Visible here is a circumscribed arc which is 29 degrees as opposed to 22 degrees. The bright corona is the colourful eye looking part and it has two moon dogs, a parhelic circle, and both upper and lower tangent arcs. To have all those phenomenon present at once is very rare."

McKean says the photo itself has been picked up by media outlets all over the world including BBC, the Washington Post, and organizations from Brazil, Argentina, France, Australia, England, and Turkey. He adds it also made an appearance as NASA’s photo of the day a short while ago.

It may be easy to complain about our cold Manitoba winters, but McKean says frigid winter nights often make for stunning photos. He describes the night he took this particular photo.

"That night was extremely cold and it was roughly 4:30 in the morning, I was on my way to Winnipeg. I usually carry my camera and tripod with me wherever I go, just in case. I had to get out of the car and capture this right away because when you see something rare like that, it could come and go. If I see it where I am, if you are a kilometre away, you might not see it. It all depends on ice crystals that are in the air."

McKean says he really enjoys taking photos of phenomena like this. He notes this winter he was also able to get some really neat photos showing pillars of light shooting into the sky. He says this type of photography really attracts people who aren’t from around here.

"A lot of Americans and people around the world, they say to me after looking at a lot of these rare phenomenons and the beautiful nights sky that we get here because they don't see that in a lot of heavy light-polluted areas, the now want to come to visit Manitoba, it is on their bucket list."