Have You Ever Seen A Midnight Rainbow?

Have you ever seen a rainbow in the middle of the night? How is that possible? Papohaku Beach, a 3 miles long beach of undisturbed sand in Moloka'i was the scenery of one of such "midnight rainbows" the night of June 17th, 2014.

Rogelio Bernal Andreo / DeepSkyColors.com / Via Owner

A moonbow or night rainbow in Papohaku Beach, Molokai, Hawaii.

Rainbows are possible at night thanks to moonlight, as opposed to direct sunlight. They are called lunar rainbows, moonbows or night rainbows.

Most photos of moonbows are what are called "false moonbows" that are caused by geographic features, not weather. Such are the moonbows people capture at Yosemite Falls in spring, for example. They're somewhat predictable months ahead of time, which means you're likely to also run into a huge crowd if you head to any of these locations when you know that a moonbow may form.

What you see in this image is, however, a true moonbow, that is, a moonbow caused entirely by weather (rain). These true moonbows are not predictable at all, just like typical daylight rainbows, except that seeing a moonbow is a much more rare event.

Can you see a moonbow naked eye or is this the trick of long exposure photography? Moonbows can be seen naked eye, however, they appear mostly devoid of color. The long exposure photograph however was able to capture the rainbow colors.

Now, if moonbows are caused by moonlight, where was the Moon? The Moon causing the night rainbow was directly behind the photographer, still low and rising over the eastern horizon, a few days past its full phase.