A Cazenovia father captured a once in lifetime moment thanks to his kids. Ben Reilley took his son and daughter in search of the Super Blue Blood Moon but what they found instead was something extremely rare.

Reilley says the idea to look for the moon came from his daughter Paige. "Her 4th grade class has been studying the different phases of the moon. So she insisted on going out to see it."

Mother Nature wasn't cooperating and Reilley says the clouds made it impossible to see the moon. "She was really disappointed. So I told her we'd drive to the top of the hill that overlooks the lake and try to find it."

The new location wasn't any better for viewing the moon either but Reilley says he saw something better. "I turned and saw what I thought was a beautiful sunrise. I had no idea until after that is was a 'sun pillar' and it's extremely rare."

What exactly is a sun pillar? "I'm still calling it a sun silo because it's more fun to say," jokes Reilley. "But apparently it's a meteorological phenomenon where it's the angle of the sun and ice crystals and 10 degree farenheit, I'll let somebody much smarter than me to describe it. All I know is it looked super cool so we grabbed the photo."

Photography is a passion for Reilley who says they have the expensive camera but not only did he forget to take it, he left his cell phone at home too. "I'm one of those guys that has his cell phone surgically attached to my forehead but my son Taven had his so I took the shot. Of all times, here I am shooting on an iPhone 5."

Even on a phone, the rare photo is stunning and Reilley says they plan to blow it up and put it in their dining room to remember the moment. "It was a once in a lifetime thing and I'm thrilled I got to experience it with my two kids."

Ben Reilley
Ben Reilley
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