Today’s awesome life experience is about moonbows! Did you ever have the awesome experience of seeing a “moonbow” at night?
What’s a moonbow?
A moonbow is like a day time rainbow, except it is formed not directly by the sun, but by the light of the moon… which is actually sunlight reflected off the moon – as you know.
I was living in Maui, Hawaii for a year and I was doing some late-night shopping at a supermarket in Kahana when I stepped outside and looked up at the full moon. I couldn’t believe what I saw within my field of view – and I had to ask other people around me to look up also. I was seeing what I thought was a night-time rainbow… a perfectly formed moonbow!
I wasn’t entirely sure that my senses weren’t lying to me until others also said they saw it. Then I thought, maybe we’re having a paranormal experience! Ha! Then I came back to reality and pulled out my camera but my poor camera wasn’t up to the task.
With my eyes I could clearly distinguish a full rainbow with colors, not near as bright as during the daytime, but there were definitely colors in the moonbow and stretching across the Maui sky. It was an awesome moment in my life and mostly because I didn’t even realize there was such a thing. It was very clear, and there must have been some fine mist high above us where it formed. It was barely sprinkling rain on us at the time.
Photos of moonbows and credits to photographers…
1st Moonbow by Jacob Sears who originally posted at this page.
This 2nd Moonbow below comes from the Astronomy Club of Asheville (astroasheville.org) originally posted here.
Pierre Lesage from Flickr posted this moonbow over Tahiti…
Pierre said of moonbows…
‘A moonbow is just like a rainbow except it is produced by a strong moonlight. The colors tend to be more faint because there is less light hitting the water droplets.
Moonbows are rare because moonlight is not very bright. A bright moon near to full is needed, it must be raining opposite the moon, the sky must be dark and the moon must be less than 42º high. Put all these together and you do not get to see a moonbow very often! To the unaided eye they usually appear, as in the thumbnail, without colour because their light is not bright enough to activate the cone colour receptors in our eyes. Nonetheless colours have been reported and might be seen when the moon is bright. ‘
Haikugarry from Flickr posted this amazing moonbow from Maui! I also clipped what he said about it… Awesome Garry… I wonder if you saw the one that I saw… Let’s see, it was year 2003…
Garry said, ‘During a bright enough moon we occasionally get a moonbow. I have only seen this 3 times in 10 years on maui, and for the first time i was prepared… and FINALLY have proof for all the disbelievers.’
Gary has some especially awesome photos. If you have time take a look at his Hawaii photos taken from a kite on Flickr.
Aloha!
Vern
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About Vern Lovic
Aloha! I'm "Vern". I created this site to focus on Hawaii - all the islands - Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Big Island and even Molokai and Lanai and Kahoolawe when I can find information on them. I love living in Hawaii, and I think you would too. I hope you come away with something positive as a result of visiting Aim for Awesome. Feel free to add comments or contact me through email. All written content on this site by Vern Lovic. Contact me at Google+. Best of Life to You in 2013 - Aloha!
saw one of these with my family in southern utah/ zion area with my family, had to rub my eyes to believe, first and last time i have seen this. quite an experience.
Vern,
Loved your site. We live in Charlevoix MI We have 3 months of summer and 9 months of cold. We are in owr mid fifities and selling the farm and moving to Maui in October or sooner. Mike is a builder of over 30 years and I am an Avid gardener., and have worked in sales. We have been studying Hawaii and decided to move to Maui as we want to stay away from to much busyness. We love the water as we live by Lake Michigan which you can only swim in 2 months of the year. We are looking to live very frugal as we know it will take time to settle. We love the climate and want to learn more of the Hawaiian culture. We are planning to stay. Why are you in Thailand. What make you want to stay there and how do you do that and work without a sponser. We would like to get onto a site where we can commuicate with someone on the Island Please tell me what you know and where you are from.
Judy