This week has had a soggy start, but with any luck (and a bit of physics) we may get a glimpse of a rainbow! All it takes is three ingredients: sunlight, raindrops, and a viewer, all lined up at an opportune angle. In bright sun, look for a fainter second rainbow arc, with its colors reversed, above the main rainbow—a double rainbow, the result of sunlight making an extra bounce inside the raindrops before heading toward the viewer’s eye.
Can’t wait to see this illusion? Enjoy these 5 lovely rainbow photos from past photo contests. Have a great shot of your own? The 2016 Photo Contest will begin on June 1, 2016.
© S. Martin Friedman
© Greg Stone
© Cheryl Rose
© Shannon Georges
© Burton Balkind