[neilep (OP)]

Dearest all ( and especially Paul, because ewe might have demonstrated this already in your kitchen science thread...which is brill and which everyone should contribute to  http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=6730.0)


See this Rainbow ?

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Nice isn't it ?

rainbows are my all time multi-coloured favourite arc shaped in-the-sky phenomena !

Unusual to have that one at night eh ? (could be another question there)

If I wanted to create a rainbow in my home ( a real one) could I ?..

could moonlight be strong enough to cause a late night rainbow ?


Do ewe rain-know ?

[another_someone]

A real rainbow is associated with water droplets at high altitude - how high is your ceiling?  Does it often rain in your living room?

Ofcourse, simply splitting white light into its constituent colours is part of high school physics - using glass prisms - but these are not 'real rainbows'.

As for rainbows at night - clearly, rainbows must have light, although it might be that around dawn or dusk you could still get light at high altitude but very reduced light at ground level.  Then again, are you sure the picture was taken at night, or was it merely stopped down to expose for a bright sky, causing the ground level to be underexposed?

[paul.fr]

Yes and yes.

lets start with the second question. Moonbows are real and although i have never seen one myself, the pictures still look good.

Moonbows are made the same way as regular rainbows, When the moonlight strikes drops of falling rain in the sky opposite the moon, they are reflected and refracted within the raindrop, making your moonbow.

When you look at at moonbow, it is almost without any colour. This is because of the low light levels, but if you were to take a picture of a moonbow, it would show up with all of the colours of a ...rainbow.

The best places to see moonbows are in location where they have waterfalls, and Little street or urban lighting.

As for the first question, can you make a rainbow at home? i hope you don't mean you need to remove the roof and get the garden hose in your living room!

I did post an experiment where you can make rainbows with the hosepipe in the garden, i will post another one that you can do inside.

[paul.fr]

oh, and you need to have a full or nearly full moon to have enough light to make your moonbow.

[neilep (OP)]

A real rainbow is associated with water droplets at high altitude - how high is your ceiling?  Does it often rain in your living room?

Of course, simply splitting white light into its constituent colours is part of high school physics - using glass prisms - but these are not 'real rainbows'.

As for rainbows at night - clearly, rainbows must have light, although it might be that around dawn or dusk you could still get light at high altitude but very reduced light at ground level.  Then again, are you sure the picture was taken at night, or was it merely stopped down to expose for a bright sky, causing the ground level to be underexposed?

THANKS GEORGE...

I have checked the height of my ceiling and it's about seven feet...Is this not high enuff ?  []......funnily enough the weather forecast for my living room has been mild and temperate for the last few years that I have lived here and I would say it is of drought conditions. []

I have checked the source of the photo and it seems that the sky was in fact bright..though the picture was taken at 10:20pm....must have been very North or South eh ?

I appreciate your answer and comments.

Neil

[neilep (OP)]

Yes and yes.

lets start with the second question. Moonbows are real and although i have never seen one myself, the pictures still look good.

Moonbows are made the same way as regular rainbows, When the moonlight strikes drops of falling rain in the sky opposite the moon, they are reflected and refracted within the raindrop, making your moonbow.

When you look at at moonbow, it is almost without any colour. This is because of the low light levels, but if you were to take a picture of a moonbow, it would show up with all of the colours of a ...rainbow.

The best places to see moonbows are in location where they have waterfalls, and Little street or urban lighting.

As for the first question, can you make a rainbow at home? i hope you don't mean you need to remove the roof and get the garden hose in your living room!

I did post an experiment where you can make rainbows with the hosepipe in the garden, i will post another one that you can do inside.

THANK EWE PAUL.

Wow !!..Moonbows !!!....Just luff the name !!...fantatsic !!

looking forward to reading how to make a rainbow at home...thanks Paul.

[Karen W.]

nice picture  and great quetion neil. i have never heard of a moonbow i need to go find a picture of one. way way cool.
what would cause it to not show aqs colors. but photographing it will???

[Karen W.]

Neily I looked up moonbows look at what I found..http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/bowims.htm

[paul.fr]

Just for you, Neil.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=6730.new#new

you could try it at night, the next time we have a full moon and see if you get a moonbow.

[Karen W.]

Thanks for the cool experiment Paul!

[neilep (OP)]

Just for you, Neil.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=6730.new#new

you could try it at night, the next time we have a full moon and see if you get a moonbow.

Excellentay  Paul....with all these Kitchen Science experiments ewe are spoiling us !!

Thanks for the Moonbow picture karen...amazing !!

[Karen W.]

yeah, your welcome!

[rosy]

Probably not in your home, but when I was a kid and we used to play in the garden with the hose we used to enjoy making rainbows by making the hose produce a fine spray of droplets in the sunshine.
A garden sprinkler'll do it too. It all depends which direction you're looking at it from.

[Karen W.]

Yep I remember doing that too and as I recall we have seen it with the sprinkler at school when we let the kids play in the sprinklers! I totally forgot about that.. Thanks Rosy!

[techmind]

...moonbow...
what would cause it to not show aqs colors. but photographing it will???

Human eyes cannot resolve colour at very low light levels (moonlight level). The retina is covered with rod- and cone-sensors; the rod-sensors are very sensitive (used for night-vision and peripheral vision) - but aren't colour-sensitive, while the cones come in Long, Medium and Shortwave sensitive versions and therefore can resolve colours... but aren't very sensitive and don't work in low light.

A film (or digital) camera with sufficiently long exposure can therefore see colours in low-light which would be indistinguishable to the human eye.