Moonbows: Glorious Color in the Night Sky

Most people have seen a rainbow after a storm.  But have you ever see a moonbow? They’re  one of Mother Nature’s most glorious examples of “night magic.”

A moonbow is the prismatic, colored haze that sometimes shows up around the moon. Moonbows are extremely rare (and hard to see around city lights.) The right amount of mist must be present to scatter and refract the moon’s beams to see color. Otherwise, the moonbow looks white.

Some places around the world are more prone to displays of moonbows than others.  For instance, if you happen to live  near the setting for my Paranormal Romance, Seduced by an Angel (Book #3, Velvet Lies series), you would probably see moonbows several times a year.  (Betcha want to know where Seduced by an Angel is set now, don’t ya? The novel takes place in what is now called the Daniel Boone National Forest, near Cumberland Falls, in Kentucky.)

Lucky people in Hawaii and Africa get to see moonbows, too (especially the folks who live near Victoria Falls.)

Fortunately, you don’t have to travel around the world to see a moonbow. They can occur anywhere: even in my home town of Austin, Texas, USA. The night I saw my first moonbow, I didn’t know WHAT the heck I was looking at.  It truly was gorgeous — but it freaked me out. I’d never heard of a moonbow before.

Now I know to look for moonbows early in the evening, as the moon is approaching full.

To view gorgeous photographs of moonbows, visit these websites: BackcountryJourneys.com and Tumblr.