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TALL MOONBOWS & HEAVY RAIN |
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This was another crazy Moonbow hunt before dawn on November 10/11th 2008. I was in an undisclosed location in the Maghera countryside watching and waiting. To my W over the Sperrin Mountains a huge black line of convective clouds arrived and drew closer. Punching boldly up from the top line was a huge thunderhead - the solid sinister looking anvil of a cumulonimbus. To it's R side was a flanking line of cumulus towers. Even mammatus could be seen. The evil looking line moved closer and closer. I knew that heavy rain would fall from these. They arrived at my location soaking me and my camera. The base of the cells cleared the mountains behind me and clear sky could be seen. Then the waxing gibbous Moon was visible only 5 degrees above the dark outline of the mountains. Not surprisingly this produced a stunning complete Moonbow. This was the lunar version of a 'sunset rainbow' only at 04.41 UT. The primary was 40 degrees (80 full Moon diameters) high so would not fit in the frame of my camera. I took this vertical shot of the L side of the bow. This is looking E. Heavy rain was falling on the camera at this point. You can see a faint secondary bow to the L. To the upper L you can just make out the three stars in the handle of the Plough (Ursa Major). Although hardly photogenic, I really like this image because of the conditions it was taken in. With the naked eye the bow possessed all these colours and looked extremely haunting!. ISO 400, 30 sec exposure using a 28mm lens at F/2.8. See the next image in the gallery for the R side of the bow.
