This morning's Moonbow!

[John9929]

I was out this morning trying to image the ISS  at 01:30BST but was hampered by cloud some of the time.
When I turned round to bring in the camera and tripod I saw my very first Moonbow, and what a beauty
it was. Very highly coloured just like a "daytime" bow but illuminated by moonlight instead. I nearly died off
when I saw it.

[martinastro]

Nice shots John!. Those moonbows are so rare and amazing. Last night had the perfect conditions for their formation. Quite a show!

Love the wide shot over the shed with the precip curtains falling.

[Roman White]

Good work. I have never seen the rainbows at night.
John, how bright it was?
And could anyone say, how often such rare events occure? What special circumstances are important for a moonbow arrive?

[John9929]

Thanks Martin it was a beauty! You are on the Spaceweather.com homepage!

Thanks Roman and welcome to the forum, you are our first member from mainland Europe!
The moonbow this morning was easily as bright as a normal rainbow, and very colourful. I
think they normally occur in or close to full Moon, but conditions need to be just right, ie. the
Moon low in the sky and a passing shower in the opposite direction. There's maybe more to
it than that, and I'm sure Martin will be on to tell us more. I have been watching for them for a
few years but this was my first one, and what a one to start with.

[martinastro]

Congrats John on your spaceweather appearance to. Both of us on at the same time lol.

Last night presented the finest moonbows I have ever seen. To cut a long story short I will put up the link to an image report I done on the website which also includes more images of the bows and some twilight convection.

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Night%20Of%20The%20Moonbows.html

Here's a few higher res images.

[dogstar]

They are so cool guy's great shots indeed.I have yet to see a moonbow, the plough and a rainbow in the same image how cool is that 

[Paul]

Those are brilliant shots guys - love the one with the Plough and the 'Bow - great stuff!

I have only photographed a Moonbow which I surmised would be there as we had a bright Moon and rain, so I took a photo in the opposite direction and voila! However it wasn't visible to my unadapted eye at the time.

And indeed Congrats both on the SW.com front page!

[Roman White]

Wow, great shots, Martin! Especially #3 & 4 with double moonbows.

It seems that moonbows appear in Ireland on every night 

[Steveo74]

Fantastic shots John & Martin! 
                                     

[martinastro]

Thanks everyone for the comments. 

[Paul]

Martin, you're on the BBC NI website! Congrats, good job

[martinastro]

Paul, thanks very much for letting me know. I missed that today but will check it out now. Thanks