What the End of a Rainbow Looks Like

Photograph by Eric Rolph

 

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection of light in water droplets in the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky.

A rainbow is not located at a specific distance, but comes from any water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to the sun’s rays. Thus, a rainbow is not an object, and cannot be physically approached. It is impossible for an observer to see a rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the sun. Even if an observer sees another observer who seems “under” or “at the end of” a rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow—further off—at the same angle as seen by the first observer.

The most commonly cited and remembered sequence of colours is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. These include not only rain, but also mist, spray, and airborne dew.

In the series of photographs below, we see the mystified end (or beginning) of a rainbow. Aside from the folklore surrounding leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of rainbows, they are also an interesting phenomena to capture, visually speaking.

As for physically ‘reaching’ the end of the rainbow that of course is not possible as the angle in which you see a rainbow changes as you move toward it, as explained above 🙂

 

1.

Photograph by Joona Kotilainen

 

 

2.

Photograph by Wing-Chi Poon

 

 

3.

Photograph by Jason Erdkamp

 

 

4.

Photograph by Sathish J

 

 

5.

Photograph via chetlin on Reddit

 

 

6.

Photograph by framboise on Flickr

 

 

7.

Photograph by Bill Bereza

 

 

8.

Photograph by Tom and Haley Sulcer

 

 

9.

Photograph by Kristen Beck

 

 

10.

Photograph by Beth Walsh Photography

 

 

11.

Photograph by BrokenMasterpiece on Reddit

 

 

12.

Photograph by Lars Erik-Franson

 

 

 

 

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Picture of the Day: A Horizon Rainbow in Paris

 

A Horizon Rainbow in Paris

 

Photograph by Bertrand Kulik

 

Have you ever seen a horizon rainbow before? This fascinating phenomenon was recently captured by photographer Bertrand Kulik in Paris, France. According to Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell of NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD):

“What is pictured above is actually just a common rainbow. It’s uncommon appearance is caused by the Sun being unusually high in the sky during the rainbow’s creation. Since every rainbow’s center must be exactly opposite the Sun, a high Sun reflecting off of a distant rain will produce a low rainbow where only the very top is visible — because the rest of the rainbow is below the horizon.
 
Furthermore, no two observers can see exactly the same rainbow — every person finds themselves exactly between the Sun and rainbow’s center, and every observer sees the colorful circular band precisely 42 degrees from rainbow’s center.” [Source]

 

Bertrand Kulik via NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day