Rare 'moonbow' phenomenon spotted in Devon skies

Daniel Clark

9 January 2025 at 1:47 pm·1-min read

A rare 'moonbow' over Exeter — -Credit:Alex Richards/DevonLive

A rare moonbow has been spotted in the skies above Devon tonight. This picture was taken in Exeter of the phenomenon.

The rare lunar rainbow phenomenon occurs when light from the moon is refracted through water droplets in the air.

Moonbows, also known as lunar rainbows, are created in the same way as their solar counterparts, with one obvious difference: they appear when moonlight, rather than sunlight, reflects and refracts off falling raindrops. But they are much rarer because they can only be seen around a full moon, when our planet's natural satellite is at its brightest in the night sky.

Even then, the moonlight is so faint compared to the sun that the luminous arches normally appear white — that's because the color-detecting receptors in our eyes don't work well enough in dim light to distinguish between the spectrum of colors produced — namely, "ROYGBIV," according to the Met Office.

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