Sunday, February 08, 2009

"Moonbow" by Garry Schlatter

What, on Earth, is a "moonbow"???

One thing I learned many years ago from Tim Baskerville and Lance Keimig is that moonlight is almost identical to sunlight, except that it's not as bright (the moon is the same apparent size in the sky as the sun, and the moon's surface is nearly neutral gray, so the reflected moonlight is very similar in color temperature to daylight). So, if sunlight creates a rainbow immediately after a rainstorm, what happens when moonlight appears immediately after a rainstrom?

The answer is... moonlight creates a "moonbow" [wikipedia]. Basically, a moonbow is just a rainbow at night (yeah, I've never seen one either...).

Recently, Brisbane, Austrailia landscape photographer Garry Schlatter photographed a moonbow at 1AM one evening. You can read the entire story on his Flickr page.

(Photo by Garry Schlatter)

Garry is also part of a great internet project called the Open Source Photo Guides. Garry has contributed numerous free online photo guides for Australia.

10 Comments:

Blogger Rebecca said...

I have never heard of a moonbow either! It looks really beautiful though and I wish I could see one!




Rebecca

http://www.TheNaturalSapphireCompany.com

11:17 PM  
Blogger Joergen Geerds said...

reminds of another very rare/hard thing to photograph: a venus shadow

4:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is really cool. I never knew that such a thing existed.

9:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thats a great photo! this is really amazing. great shot.

12:28 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks for the link to Open Source Photo Guides! I had no idea this existed, and I'm always using google maps and unrelated travel articles to piece together a plan of action when I explore a new place.

9:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Never seen a moonbow before. I've seen another interesting thing though, a moon halo. Which is a ring of light around the moon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(optical_phenomenon)

10:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking about the devil: I just saw a moon halo about 20 miles east of Oklahoma City yesterday night, when i was shooting with my brother.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_kesler/3335423211/

12:19 PM  
Blogger Maura Brennan said...

There are moonbows at Yosemite! I saw them last year and they were a beautiful sight, as are the rainbows during the day. The brightest moonbow of the year is on April 8-9th this year. I had never even heard of one before last year. I am returning for moonbows this Spring.For info, google
"txstate.edu.moonbows 2009 lower yosemitefalls" I can't seem to leave a complete link on these narrow comment margins.
Also, I wrote about the experience on my blog entry "Springtime in Yosemite
http://plasticismybag.blogspot.com/
2008_05_01_archive.html

5:05 PM  
Anonymous hosting boy said...

Wow!Its really surprising to know moonbow.Amazing work.Mind blowing.

10:33 PM  
Blogger Tanya said...

Few people ever get to experience a night rainbow.
" It is the spirit rainbow. The rainbow that holds our ancestors. When it is seen it is a great blessing from the ancestors"
From
'Tales of the night rainbow' Koko Willis an Pali Jae Lee
Thought you would enjoy this book.

5:33 PM  

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