Photographer Francisco Sojuel captures once-in-a-lifetime moment of our nearest celestial neighbour, the Moon, that looks like Saturn, and there's a scientific explanation for why it looks like this.

Those seems to be lenticular clouds, disk shaped clouds that form on mountain peaks. The cloud are actually a cirrostratus cloud, at a perfect angle it looks like it's surrounding the moon instead of in front of it. These thin clouds are actually a cirrostratus clouds, and made of ice crystals.

There's no real halo around this Moon and the texture of the clouds is a bit fluffy, they might be a cirrostratus fibratus or a cirrus spissatus formation cloud. These are both denser and are often formed by strong winds, and at certain angles they create halos around the moon.

The image was taken before sunrise, because we can observe that light from the Sun directly illuminates the lunar crescent from the bottom, which means that the Sun must be below the horizon.

This photograph was captured on 2019 December 24, just two days before the Moon slid in front of the Sun to create a solar eclipse. In the foreground, a silhouette of Pacaya volcano and the Guatemalan highlands fills out the lower portion of the image and enhances the dramatic effects of the photo.

Brilliant photographer caught this “optical illusion” just at the right moment. This is wonderful, Mother Nature sure is spectacular and underrated, and right on our doorsteps, it's time to appreciate just how wonderful she really is.