'Field Notes:' How 'Moon Dogs' Are Made Moon dogs have many names: lunar halos, moon rings, or winter rings. Their scientific name is “paraselenae” and they are made visible by a combination of specific circumstances. Tonight we’re staying in a primitive cabin, lit with the enticing orange and warmth of the small cast iron fireplace. We pull our toasted faces away from the hypnotic flame, determined to observe the night sky from the frozen surface of Lake Como, which is just down the rocky hill from the cabin. Hundreds of yards down that hill in the dark, the crunching noise of the gravely sand beneath my friends’ boots sounds inches away. The cold air carries sound with the same clarity and translucence the night sky displays.