sun dogs

my friend, brian, called me up yesterday to tell me that there were sun dogs in the sky. do you know about those? it's when there is a little rainbow on both sides of the sun. (actually, you can find a more technical definition at any of these links that brian shared with me.) he also said that he had noticed (with sunglasses on) a halo around the sun for most of the day. immediately i ran outside to see what i could see. and i saw one little rainbow on one side of the sun....

but then,
last night when my eyes found the darkness,
i saw what i was told to be mars glowing with a halo of her own.
it was like the sky around her was reflecting her brilliant light.

and then as the night passed on,

the moon came out to sing her praise.
the atmosphere was filled with crystals of ice
reflecting the moon's light.
and she was so still and solid in the center...
with this amazing radiance illuminating from her breadth.

i stood in my back yard, breath-taken... and breath-filled.
i've never seen the sky light up the way it did.
it tingled throughout my entire body.
there was magic in the air.

is this a regional thing? are other people in other parts of the world experiencing this phenomena right now (it's still that way, though not as dramatic tonight)?