Rare moon dogs light up dark southern Manitoba sky

Winnipeggers were treated to a relatively rare sight in the inky sky early Thursday before sunrise.

Bright spots, known as moon dogs, werevisibleon bothsides of ahalo that ringed the moon.

The lunarhalo and spots only happen when there are ice crystals in the air and the moon is bright enough quarter moon or more to shine light that can be refracted by the crystals, according toThe Stargazer's Guide to the Night Sky.

The moon was full just one night earlier. In fact, it was a supermoon, which happenswhen the moon is full at the same time it is the closest distance in its orbit toEarth.

Moon dogs are like sun dogsbut rarer. Sun dogs simply need the crystals in the air.

And on Thursday, when the sky brightened, makingthe moon's glow dim, the sun dogs came out.

Thursday's phenomenon comes one day after another extremely uncommonoccurrence a super blood blue moon.

It was the first alignment of a blue moon (the second full moon in a calendar month), a total lunar eclipse and a supermoonsince 1866. The blood part of the name comes from theeclipse, known as a blood moon for its red tint.

The next supermoon can be seenin February, the next blue moon is in March and the next total lunar eclipse is in July.

But thecombination won't happen again until 2037.

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