Feb 9 2010Where Are The Moonicorns?: Moonbow Picture
Now I know what you're thinking, "WTF GW -- another freaking rainbow?!" But it ain't. This is NOT a rainbow. I repeat (for the high and habitual sentence skippers), this is NOT a rainbow. IT'S A MOONBOW, YOUNG'N! What's a moonbow? Beats me, but it better shoot arrows!
It was captured by Wally Pacholka last January 20, at the Haleakala Crater on the Island of Maui, Hawaii. The moonbow--or lunar rainbow--is caused when the near-full moon at less than 42 degrees in a dark sky. The colors are so faint that the human eye color receptors can't be excited enough for the brain to identify them. Therefore, they appear as white arcs to the naked eye. Only by using long-exposure photography you can reveal the diffraction of the moonlight through the microscopic water droplets suspended in the air.
I don't know about all that scientific mumbo-jumbo, but what I do know is THAT SHIT BETTER LEAD TO SPACE-GOLD! Squire, prepare my moonicorn.
Have You Ever Seen a Lunar Rainbow? [gizmodo]
Thanks to Luis, whose gonna rent a lunar backhoe and uproot that crater. He wants the gold, give him the gold.
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Reader Comments
1. Closet Nerd - February 9, 2010 10:21 PM
No, a moonbow shoots moonarrows...... just sayin
2. Billy Rapture - February 9, 2010 10:23 PM
What would a moonarrow look like?
An arrow with the moon on it?
Like, actual size?
3. Cadoo! - February 9, 2010 10:53 PM
maybe its just a..... shut up
4. Richard McBeef - February 9, 2010 11:06 PM
that moonbow is kinda neeto fors reals.
@3 - Yes because the people here give a big shit about counterfeit chinese handbags.
5. Mbt trainers - February 10, 2010 12:51 AM
Mbt trainers show a new stylelife,i am satisfied with Mbt sport shoes & Mbt m walk. http://www.mbt-lami.com/
6. lee harless - February 10, 2010 12:53 AM
i need to cut my fingernails
7. FIRST - February 10, 2010 1:14 AM
YOUSUNKMYBATTLESHIP.
8. 642-901 - February 10, 2010 2:03 AM
I'm just kidding.
9. SY0-201 - February 10, 2010 2:09 AM
Biased (prejudiced). Stop saying those things about it. You're just biased.
10. slenderbender - February 10, 2010 3:24 AM
I saw this pic on my APOD app on my iphone, the bright red star on the left is Mars
11. JMoney - February 10, 2010 7:14 AM
This is a great picture. Though, this kind of thing happens all the time over in Cumberland Falls, Kentucky. http://www.brycefieldsphotography.com/imgs/harvestmoonbow.jpg
12. Nick - February 10, 2010 8:12 AM
This picture looks photoshoped. If we arent able to see the moonbow with are naked eye and we have to take a picture to see it how do we know its real. what is stopping a person from taking a picture at night photoshoping a rainbow in and scamming everybody over.
13. Timbo - February 10, 2010 9:33 AM
That's cheating! You have to use the camera flash to get a rainbow. It's an artificial rainbow...
14. naas - February 10, 2010 10:15 AM
insert unicorn anywhere below
15. atheistgirl - February 10, 2010 10:51 AM
So, it is a rainbow then?
16. Timbo - February 10, 2010 11:26 AM
Rainbow minus the rain
17. Closet Nerd - February 10, 2010 3:07 PM
@15 Thats what she said!
18. florch - February 10, 2010 7:05 PM
@12 Cameras = greater sensitivity and wavelength coverage than your eye. Just because thermal IR cams can see what you can't doesn't mean thermal IR images aren't real, eh?
Also, give APOD credit jeez.
19. Haylan - February 10, 2010 7:09 PM
A. that Kentuky picture is infact a moonbow, but is more common and less sought after since it is caused by light of any kind hittng water-which can happen day or night and is not hard to find. The Haleakala moonbow and others like it are without a source of water, discounting humidity in the air (clouds, fog etc)
B. the Haleakala picture above is not photoshoped. you CAN see moonbows with your naken eye, as the article said you had read it, but you don't get the same bright colors, you see it more in shades of white light.
I worked on a different mountain in Hawai'i until recently, Mauna Kea, and I saw only two the whole time. they are very rare and circumstances have to be very perticular for them to appear. very pretty whether it's the white or photographed w/color!