Today, here in Brazil, I have observed (and is still observing) an interesting phenomenon.
The Moon is near to a big star in the sky, but this is normal. The interesting part is what's around them.
A huge circle in which the moon and the star is inside. Why does this circle appear? What is it?
(This isn't a cloud. It looks like more something like a light reflection of a lamp.)
Unfortunately, I hadn't a good camera to catch this. I would appreciate having an image posted for this.
Answer
You might be describing a moon aura.
It's caused by diffraction on tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere: When the moonlight hits the ice, you get interference effects that depend on the angle of the incident light. The idea is similar to powder diffraction in crystallography.
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