paraselene
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A bright spot on a lunar halo, produced by refraction through a preponderating number of ice-crystals floating perpendicularly or vertically; a mock moon.
Examples
-
Of such are the records of auroral displays, parhelions, paraselene, lunar halos, fog bows, irridescent clouds, refracted images of mountains and mirage generally.
-
Beneath the glamour of the magic night, the weird paraselene of the moon's phenomenon, the glow of the volcano, the noises, the men whispered of one thing only -- Gold!
-
A perfect paraselene is, I am convinced, an extremely rare thing, much rarer than a perfect parhelion
Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska
-
This morning it was calm and clear save for a light misty veil of ice crystals through which the moon shone with scarce clouded brilliancy, surrounded with bright cruciform halo and white paraselene.
-
All day it has been blowing hard, 30 to 60 miles an hour; it has never looked very dark overhead, but a watery cirrus has been in evidence for some time, causing well marked paraselene.
-
On the evening of November 11, there was a brilliant paraselene, two distinct halos and eight false moons being visible in the southern sky.
The North Pole Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club
-
When there are two suns visible, or two moons, the real one and its duplicate, we call the mock sun a _parhelios_, and the mock moon a _paraselene_.
Note
The word 'paraselene' comes from Greek roots meaning 'beside' and 'moon'.