A STRANGE optical phenomenon was spotted in the skies near Hengistbury Head.

Nik Spicer captured a picture of a circle of light that had formed around the sun.

The spectacular sight, which was visible from the beach at Hengistbury Head on Sunday, September 15, is known as a halo.

Nik said: "We were sitting at the beach with a flask of coffee, watching the waves, and the weather turned.

"My husband, Lee, spotted it, and I looked up to see a ring of light around the sun.

"It looked like a portal; I was hoping it could transport me to Ibiza."

The circle of light called a 22-degree halo, is produced by light interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere and gets its name from its radius of roughly 22 degrees.

The Met Office says: "Haloes require ice crystals to form - either from high cirrus cloud of free falling crystals.

"Typically, sunlight or moonlight is reflected by ice crystals, producing a white halo.

"However, if the light rays strike the light at a particular angle, some light may be refracted. In such situations the halo will have a faint colouration."