Moonbows are lunar rainbows, formed when moonlight, rather than direct sunlight, is refracted by moisture in the atmosphere. Moonbows most commonly appear in areas where high rainfall has occurred; they can also be spotted in the mist around waterfalls. Moonbows are much fainter than solar rainbows, due to the smaller amount of light reflected from the surface of the moon; to have a chance of seeing one the moon needs to be at or nearest to its brightest phase full moon. In addition, the sky must be very dark and the Moon must be very low in the sky (less than 42º above the horizon).
To the naked eye, moonbows appear white; however, when photographed, using long-exposure, the classic rainbow spectrum of colors can be visualized.
The moonbow across the skies over the county of Yorkshire, England, was spotted, and photographed, by Ben Gwynne. The strange effect was spotted on the moors above Skipton, North Yorkshire at about 19:40 hours on October 16, 2016. Commenting on the observation, Mr Gwynne told the BBC: “We’d gone into the Dales to take pictures and stopped on the way back to photograph the moon over some trees. I’d never seen one before and getting to photograph it was amazing.”
Gwynne has put some of the images on his Facebook page. For those interested in the technicalities of photography, Gwynne used a Canon 5D3, Samyang 14mm Fisheye, and 3Leggedthing Leo Tripod to capture the pictures.
