Rainbow at night

shayser

Outside my house at around 4.45am this morning I saw a milky white/grey full-arch rainbow.

The moon was full or close to full in the west and there was cloud in the east. The cloud cover was roughly from north east to south east/south.

I took some photos with a camera phone but they didn't come out. In one photo, if I bump up the brighness and contrast, a small part of the rainbow can just about be made out.

There's not much on Google about rainbows at night. Supposedly, they are rare. The only picture I could find that was close to what I saw was this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garry61/3191250682/

but that one has colour whereas mine hadn't and it looks photoshopped to my untrained eye. I linked to this one as the sky looks nearly as dark as in my situation last night. In most of the other images on Google the sky is brighter or the rainbow is at water.

Anyone else see a rainbow at night?

Iancar29

Moonbow!!!! wooO!! well done!! , havent seen one that good in along time!! WEll DONE!

Pa ElGrande

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJVvtOy-ukE

Walter Lewin, professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sheds light on everyday phenomena such as rainbows and what makes the sky blue. Watch Lewin create a rainbow right in the lecture hall and other exciting demonstrations in this engaging and creative discussion of physics that sheds what lies beneath the everyday wonders of our world.

Nabber

The picture you linked is not at nighttime.

It's a rainbow under a stormcell with the sun behind the camera man.


Shame you don't have a picture.

Harps

Martin mcKenna's got a few of them on camera up north, they're basically the same as rainbows although obviously a lot rarer as the light from the moon usually isn't bright enough to form them.

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Rainbow%20&%20Moonbow%20Gallery.html

Pangea

Funny you should mention this, I seen one earlier, in the dark aswell, never seen one before or knew they existed, it was colourless, but I thought it must of been from a light beam or something.

eskimocat

I remember seeing them once or twice but like you Pangea, didn't really know what they were so wrote them off as random lights... since I found out about moonbows haven't managed to spot one!