Monday, December 21, 2009

Red Rainbow at Sunset

Rowing tonight in Newport.
Over my left shoulder is a "red rainbow"; it appeared for just a moment and I handed my camera to the couple for a shot.
The colors were much more vivid in real life and the rainbow was truly red - or at least mostly red as it was illuminated by the sunset sky.

This was the first time in my life that I'd seen such a rainbow,
I was perplexed but after some hunting, I found a little info on the phenomenon.
Here's a piece on the Atmospheric Optics website which explains how and why red rainbows occur.
Because they happen only at sunset and sunrise, they don't last long.
The sunrise ones may change into regular rainbows, the sunset ones just disappear.
Sure enough, a minute later and it was gone.

I learned a long time ago that I've got a long way to go before I can ever say that I've seen everything.

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