Moonbows are similar to rainbows, but they are created by moonlight instead of direct sunlight.
Moonbows or lunar
rainbows are rare natural atmospheric phenomena that occur when the Moon’s
light is reflected and refracted off water droplets in the air.
Moonbows are rarer
than rainbows because a variety of weather and astronomical conditions have to
be just right for them to be created.
Water droplets
must be present in the air in the opposite direction of the moon. Moonbows occur on
the opposite side of the Moon and tend to look white to the human eye. This is
because their colors are not bright enough to be perceived by the receptors in
the human eye. It is possible, however, to view the colors in a moonbow using
long exposure photography. The Moon has to be very low in the sky – no more than 42 degrees from the horizon. The Moon phase has to be a Full Moon or nearly full. The sky must be very dark for a moonbow to be observed – any bright light can obscure it.
Moonbows are more
frequent in some locations around the world. Most of these locations tend to
have waterfalls, which create layers of mist in the air. Some of these
locations are the Yosemite National Park in California and Cumberland Falls
State Resort Park in Kentucky, U.S.; Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and
Zimbabwe; and Waimea in Hawaii, U.S.
