Moonbow

mosseybuck

Last night we had an unusual thunderstorm after midnight and we had almost half moon in western sky. It caused a moonbow to be formed. My wife called to me to come look and it was pretty clear but not as colorful as normal rainbow. I have never seen one before and was pretty impressed. Just curious how many others here have seen one?

zorba

Once or twice.

Linefinder

I've seen three here in Colorado Springs while near downtown, which makes me wonder how they would have looked 30 miles east on the plains, away from the lights. Wish I could have seen that.

Never saw one in Louisiana and I figure humidity levels have a lot to do with it. Never even heard of a moonbow until I moved here, but I'm sure glad I saw the ones  I did.

The colors are more subtle than a rainbow, but  still, pretty striking all on their own. Kind of reminded me of those "dark night" paintings on black velvet, but done by a much better hand with no added drama.

Mike

edited to add....When I saw my first one 9-10 years ago, I posted a thread here about it.  Seems they're pretty common in northern Wyoming and Montana.

jaywapti

I've seen a few but only in the high country.

JAY

CHIRO1989

I have seen them up at the hunting shack, only light is from us and the neighbors and the stars and moon

Spk

Seen them once or twice. They're caused by droplets in the air and only available were conditions allow. I've seen them mostly around Spring or Fall but sometimes in the Summer when the conditions are just right (rare storm blows through then the wind dies off and lots of Moon breaks through the cloud cover).

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/weather/south-australias-magical-moonbow-mystery-explained/news-story/67350a5e6eae65050e407bee10e7ef64

They're pretty cool to look at. 👍

More common than the Moonbow is a lunar halo, which is caused by ice crystals very high up.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(optical_phenomenon)

Linefinder

We get moon halos here in the winter so often they don't even warrant comment. A moonbow, otoh, is a whole different critter. Like a glass of water or a mug of beer.

Mike

Make_My_Day

I've seen moon halos before, but never saw or even heard of a moonbow.

Spk

Once you see one, you'll remember.

👍