Moonbows familiarity to rainbows

Moonbows

Many people are quit familiar with rainbows, but few are as familiar with moonbows. Rainbows are caused by sunlight hitting raindrops and bouncing back. You can see a rainbow when the Sun is low in the sky behind you and it is raining ahead of you. Light from the Sun reflects off the inside surfaces of raindrops and is bent as it travels through them. It apperas as a band of collors because each of the collors in sunlight is bent to a different angle.

Moonbows are far less common than are rainbows, but they are formed in much the same way. They require a very specific set of circumstances to occur. When they do occurr, they occur just after a full Moon, a Moon at its brightest, has risen in the east and just after the Sun has set in the west and it must also be raining in the west. In this situation a moonbow may be visible to you if you are facing west and if the Moon is behind you. Light from the bright Moon reflects off the inside surfaces of the raindrops in the west and bends the colors to create a moonbow.