A rainbow at night

[American Patriot]

A RAINBOW AT NIGHT: Recipe for a rainbow: Add bright sunlight to raindrops and voila!--a beautiful band of multi-colors arcs across the sky. With such an ingredient list, you might suppose that rainbows can only be seen during the day, yet on March 24th Ethan Tweedie of Kamuela, Hawaii, recorded this spectacular example long after dark:

"It was a moonbow," explains Tweedie. The bright moon played the role of sun, illuminating nightime raindrops falling through the damp Hawaiian air. "I've been trying to photograph a moonbow for a long time. Last night I was driving back from the Volcano there it was!"

Tweedie's long exposure revealed something even more rare: a secondary moonbow. It's the faint 'bow arciing above the brighter primary. Primary rainbows are caused by single reflections inside raindrops; secondary bows are caused by double reflections. It was a night to remember, indeed.

[Ryan Ruck]

That is a hell of an amazing picture. Almost looks CGI...

Really had no idea those occur, have only seen moon halos. Makes sense I suppose.

Kudos to the photog!

[Luke]

I have seen many a moon halo and a few moondogs, but never a moonbow.