Ever notice how water has to be involved before you get a rainbow? Rainbows never happen on dry, clear days.

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I remember how surprised I was when I saw a rainbow appear on a cloudless day while I was misting a soapy car with the garden hose. I was so amazed that the arc was larger than I realized that I climbed up a ladder before I realized that I could make the rainbow form in a cull circle!

Moonbows (also known as lunar rainbows) form from light reflected off the moon form in the atmosphere. Since they are formed from reflected sunlight, they tend to be very faint. If you want to find one, look in the opposite part of the sky from the moon. It will look like a white instead of the usual rainbow colors, but that’s because the eye has a hard time seeing colors in the dark. If you take a long-exposure photograph, the colors will appear. Aristotle himself recorded observing moonbows on dark nights when the weather conditions were just right!

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