Travel of Light

[Protagorus]

A couple of nights ago, I was in a pool, floating on my back and looking up at the sky, and I was pretty sure I could see where the light from the sun reflected off the moon stopped. I could see a very lighter black in a rather large circle around the moon and a darker black that began on the fringes of this lighter circle. So, my question is/are, was I hallucinating, and, if not, does light in any circumstance travel uniformly, or will some rays extend beyond others? This is barring something in the way of the rays, of course.

[Pete]

Hi Protagorus,
You seem to be describing an atmospheric phenomenon like a halo, caused by light cloud (light enough to be invisible in the night sky, except close to the moon)

[orange]

Hey Protagorus!

The "halo" is caused by miniature ice-crystals in the atmosphere, which either refracts the light. A discussion about can be found at http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12386.

[Protagorus]

Thanks guys, that link really helped.