A rare and stunning moonbow was captured last Sunday by Ben Gwynne, right after he took a photo of another rare super moon in Yorkshire. The super moon is called "Hunter's Moon" -- also called "blood moon" -- is one of the rarest supermoons to be observed in the sky. Most probably, the Hunter's Moon's light caused the moonbow to appear as well.
Moonbow or lunar rainbows are formed from the light of the moon is refracted by the moisture in the atmosphere. This is similar with how a rainbow is formed, except that only the direct sunlight is refracted.
Gwynne explained how he was at the right place at the right time. "We'd gone into the Dales to take pictures and stopped on the way back to photograph the moon over some trees," Gwynne said. "I'd never seen one before and getting to photograph it was amazing."
It is known that the moon does not have its own light and it still depends on the sun for a moon to actually light up. According to a CNN report, what makes a moonbow rare is that aside from depending on sun's light to refract the moon, there must be moisture and fog. And last Sunday's event, it does have all the elements to form a rare moonbow in Yorkshire.
Compare to a rainbow, where we can still see vivid colors in a naked eye, moonbow's colors are pretty hard to see. That is because moonlight is weaker than sunlight, that all you can see is a fainting white color. But fret not, once you take a photo of it in a long-exposure--- just like what Gwynne did - you can now see different colors on its bow.
Still intrigued? There is still a chance for you to witness moonbow, as it is reported by National Geographic that there will be two supermoons to be viewed under the sky in the coming weeks. Watch out for the biggest supermoon on the 21st century on November 14.