Lunar Rainbows

*I had to do a project for Earth Science...here is it*

Lunar Rainbows

A remarkably rare weather phenomenon is a moon bow, better known as a lunar rainbow. They also are known as white rainbows, lunar bows, or space rainbows. These are just rainbows that happen at night from light reflecting off the surface of the moon. Very few people can actually see them with their bare eyes. Since not very many people can see them except maybe a white light, they are sometimes considered monochrome rainbows. Lunar rainbows only occur in a few places throughout the world, making them very rare indeed.

Lunar rainbows normally occur 2 days preceding and 2 days subsequent to the full moon. It doesn’t always occur during full moons, there has to be a lot of moonlight during the night for there to be lunar rainbows though. Full moons normally have that amount of moonlight. The moon has to be setting or rising. The moon has to be at an angel of less than 42 degrees in order of the lunar rainbow to appear. The elevation decides how big the lunar rainbow will be. For example, the lunar rainbow will be bigger when the elevation is low. There has to be rain for the lunar rainbows to occur. For the best results of a lunar rainbow there also is a retreating cold front.

The reason why people can’t always see the lunar rainbows, even when they are there, is because the lunar rainbows aren’t that bright. When the moonlight isn’t super bright, the lunar rainbows can appear to be white or grey. This is why they are considered monochrome rainbows. Our eyes can’t pick up the colors very well because of the poor amount of light. This is why photographs of lunar rainbows are taken. The photograph will catch the colors when the eyes cannot. Long exposure photographs work the best.

When taking photographs of lunar rainbows, the camera should be placed on a tripod. Most people can’t hold completely still for the duration of the needed exposure to get a good photograph. If there isn’t a tripod, the photograph is likely to turn out very fuzzy. The lunar rainbow will appear on the opposite side of the sky as the moon. If you look at your shadow, your shadows head is will be in the lunar rainbow’s arc form. So you will know how big the arc will be. If the camera has a flash, the photo won’t turn out. To focus the camera, do that manually. If all those are followed, the photograph should turn out good, even if the lunar bow isn’t seen without the picture. 

There aren’t very many places in the world that meet the conditions to have lunar rainbows. A lot of these places are around the ocean or waterfalls. The Yosemite Falls, the Cumberland Falls, Victoria Falls, and Waimea are all places that the lunar rainbows have occurred and tend to quite frequently.

Lunar rainbows were first called moonbows by Nick Whelan. He was someone who spotted the first lunar rainbow in Utah that was documented. Lunar rainbows have been around longer than that though. They were mentioned in 350 BC and in 1847. In 350 BC they were mentioned in Aristotle’s Meteorology.

Lunar rainbows are just like rainbows, except at night time with the moon’s light instead of sunlight. Lunar rainbows have less intensity than rainbows. Lunar rainbows show in the sky opposite the moon. Lunar rainbows are both rare and hard to see. Lunar rainbows are a rare weather phenomenon.