Museum catalogue: Polar Art Collection

Lunar haloes, 1875-1876


Accession no.:	Y: 54/13/8
Title:	Lunar haloes, 1875-1876
Description:	One of set of 49 watercolours, 1 pencil sketch, 7 pen drawings, all the work of Staff Surgeon Edward Lawton Moss, R.N. of H.M.S.Alert during the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76. 'This is a sketch, from the floes alongside the ship, of an unusually distinct Paraselena that appeared on the 11th December, 1875. The haloes and cross round the moon are caused by the passage of her light through a tissue of impalpably minute needle-like crystals of ice slowly falling through the atmosphere. The snow-covered hills of Floeberg Beach are in the background, and in the foreground two officers are measuring the arc with a sextant, while the long-lost Sally looks on. In summer the sun was often surrounded by a similar meteor, but intensely dazzling, and tinted with colours like an outside rainbow' - Extract from 'Shores of the Polar Sea'.
Medium:	Watercolour
Artist:	Moss, Edward Lawton
Note:	Text, hand-written on reverse of paper: '11th December 1875. Aldrich is making measurements with his sextant'.
Dimensions:	Image: Width: 355mm; height: 252mm Mount: Width: 555mm; height: 410mm