Brits across the UK were left bewildered after spotting a bright ring around the moon on Saturday night.

The phenomenon, which is caused by the refraction of moonlight from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere, was seen over the skies in various parts of the country including Surrey, Kent and Derbyshire.

People took to social media to share their pictures of the ‘breathtaking’ halo.

Greg McPhillips, 60, from Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, told the Express: “It’s quite mystical, it got me wondering how people would have reacted hundreds of years ago when they saw this happening.

“It was probably scary for them.”

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In a different part of the country, Helen Challand, 42, from Buxton, Derbyshire, braved the freezing cold weather to capture the halo.

She said: “I went out last night to check out the aurora and saw the moon had a lovely halo around it and Jupiter was next to it.

“I’ve seen these before in very cold weather. It was absolutely breathtaking so just had to take some pictures of it.”

It reads on the Met Office’s website: In the past haloes and other such atmospheric phenomena were used as an empirical form of weather forecasting before the development of meteorology. There is some degree of truth in this.”

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