Lunar Rainbow

I biked to the eastern side of the island with my headlamp to wait for the full moon to rise over this really tall cloud. While I waited, I walked the beach. There were a lot of Boobies crammed into the tiny trees right by the water sleeping for the night. It was kind of adorable. The wind was picking up and it felt nice. Not so nice were the crabs that were jumping out at the last second to run into the ocean to avoid me. I hate those things. The moon still was not coming out. I noticed that the cloud was getting closer to the island. And then it was right on top of me. At first, it was a nice sprinkle. Then it started to rain. It felt really nice and I stayed out there. Then I remembered my computer in my backpack that was hanging on my bike seat. Crap. I ran over there, in flip flops, in the rain, in the dark. I took my shirt and hung it over my bag to try and protect it from the rain. I started to bike back to camp. It was hard to see anything because the rain was being reflected by my head lamp. I ended up turning it off and I could see much better.

Thankfully the moon was creeping out as this rain cloud moved away from it. I took the runway as opposed to Internet Road to avoid road obstacles like bushes growing in the road cracks. I noticed that the back edge of the storm was right over me. And I realized I was just biking to stay in the storm. I started to slow. I was going to go right to my tent but then saw something that made me stop. At first I wasn’t sure. But as the storm was moving on and the full moon was making its way out from behind a distant cloud, I saw it. A Lunar Rainbow.

How cool is that? Did you even know it existed? I didn’t. I am putting it up there with unicorn sightings. It was beautiful. I just stood there for the longest time in awe. I wanted to take a picture but there were droplets on the lens. I tried to wipe it on my shirt but it was soaked. So with one big blow, I was able to clear it and take some pictures. I was so shocked when I saw them come out on the screen. I took a few more and then radioed to anybody about the rainbow. I put my shirt back on as the rain had stopped and my bag was safe. I pulled into camp and asked if they heard my radio call.

Colin and Katrina got to see it and were very impressed. Steve and Kyle had already gone to bed. Sorry guys. You just missed out on something AMAZING!! According to Wikipedia, these things can be called a lunar rainbow, moonbow, black rainbow, white rainbow, and space rainbow. It is a rainbow that is made from the light reflected off the moon as opposed to direct sunlight. It also says that because the light is often too low for the cone receptors in our eyes to detect color, the rainbows often look white. Not this one. I could see every color in it. You gotta love a full moon in the middle of the ocean with no light pollution!