First time, lunar atmospheric rainbow

[Marvin Jenkins]

As it is caused by the moon I thought I would post it here. Heavy winds and heavy rain here yesterday which cleared to blue skies and horse tails into the night.

Didn’t get the scope out due to the full moon, but took the dogs Marvin jr and Lexy up the lane for a walk. A huge high piece of horse tail crossed the moon, very thin but like a work of art.

The moon very bright had a halo five moon diameters in circumference, and a further four moon diameters of the bands of the colour spectrum. I realise this is a circular version of a rainbow caused by second hand light reflecting off the moon back through the ice crystals of the horse tail.

What surprised me, other than how beautiful it was, was I that I think it is the first time I have seen this phenomenon. Does anyone out there have a name for this as it stopped me in my tracks.

Marv

[dannybgoode]

I have some photos of it from a night a while ago. I’ll dig them out and see if they are similar to what you saw. Like you I’d never seen anything like it before. 

[Marvin Jenkins]

Thank you if you could that would be great. I did think about running back to the house and grabbing the tripod and DSLR but the clouds were moving quick so I knew it was just that moment in time.

like a night time circular rainbow round the moon, a first for me, but I have only been at this two years so I thought I would ask the question. 

[MartinHiggins]

Hi Marvin, yes I saw that too and very beautiful it was. I recall very vividly the last time I saw this phenomenon which was a New Years eve about 10 years ago.

I guess it only occurs when the moon is very close to full?

 

[Marvin Jenkins]

On 10/12/2019 at 22:21, dannybgoode said:

I have some photos of it from a night a while ago. I’ll dig them out and see if they are similar to what you saw. Like you I’d never seen anything like it before. 

Did you manage to find those pics? It’s imbedded in my memory, but you know how it is, you sometimes think ‘did I really see that”

M

[dannybgoode]

48 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Did you manage to find those pics? It’s imbedded in my memory, but you know how it is, you sometimes think ‘did I really see that”

M

Sorry mate. Forgot about this. Knew I’d posted the photos on here somewhere. Excuse the technical quality - was stood in the garden in my underwear and didn’t want to alarm the neighbours by loitering too long. 
 

Was this something like what you saw?

 

 

[Marvin Jenkins]

Thank you for coming back to me. Obviously everyone’s conditions are different and my cloud cover was way thinner and white.

I think the end result was the same, as there appears to be a large light halo around the moon then bands.

My visual literally had a circular rainbow around the outside of the halo. Colour at night is always a bit of a supprise.

Thanks again for replying

Marvin