A double rainbow !!!!!
By quickstar
@quickstar (268)
India
February 11, 2010 3:34am CST
I was very much amused to see a double rainbow yesterday.
i saw it near a hill station called nainitaal in india.
that experience i just can't explain .
Eyes were like .........o man what is this....
THIS IS NATURE.
Have you seen any double rainbow ? share your experience........
3 people like this
5 responses
@srganesh (6340)
• India
11 Feb 10
quickstar!I have seen double rainbow too.But that is not actually two rainbows appearing at the same time.Closely observe your photo and you will see one is original and the other is the reflection.Really nature serves a great feast at times which we should not miss at all.
1 person likes this
@quickstar (268)
• India
11 Feb 10
wasn't it a panaromic view?
hey double rainbow consists of a primary and a secondary rainbow.
both having vibgyor in a reverse order.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
11 Feb 10
Britain being a fairly rainy country, we fairly often see double rainbows. Srganesh is only partly correct: it IS 'two rainbows appearing at the same time' but it is also due to reflection, in a sense.
Each raindrop is a perfect sphere and acts as a tiny prism so that light of a certain colour exits it at a particular angle. The light that enters the raindrop is actually partially reflected inside many times. When the light is bright enough we also see the result of the second (and sometimes the third) partial reflections (triple rainbows are possible but very rarely seen). It is complicated to explain in words but here is a page with diagrams which may explain it better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow .
Rainbows have, for a long time, been considered lucky. In the Bible, Noah saw the rainbow as a sign that the deluge was over and in Ireland there is a tradition that a pot of gold will be found 'at the foot of a rainbow' (that is, where the rainbow meets the ground). This is really a little joke: you can never actually get to the foot of a rainbow because if you get to the place where you first observed it, the rainbow will appear in a different place ... in other words, it's the same thing as saying that riches cannot be found by following illusions!
@srganesh (6340)
• India
11 Feb 10
owlwings!That is a beautiful link you gave us to learn more about rainbows.I am surprised top learn that there can be three and sometimes four.One should be really lucky to see three or four at the same time.And one should be lucky to see a semicircular rainbow at its full.Sure,noticing a rainbow is beautiful.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
11 Feb 10
Another interesting fact about rainbows is that the shadow of your head (or the camera) will ALWAYS appear at the centre of the circle (or part circle). Very rarely, if you are standing on the edge of a precipice or the top of a mountain, for example, you can see the complete circle and it will look as if your shadow is completely surrounded by a bright halo with the shadow of your head at the centre.
There is another, related phenomenon called the Brocken Spectre (The Brocken is a mountain in Germany where the phenomenon is often seen). It is actually a 'fog bow' and the halo is smaller (I am not quite sure why but I think it is to do with the differences between fog and rain). There is an excellent photo (and a creepy story) here: http://www.biggreyman.co.uk/legend.html .
@sukumar794 (5040)
• Thiruvananthapuram, India
11 Feb 10
Rainbows cannot appear in twin nature....yours must be a reflection of the original one.
@quickstar (268)
• India
11 Feb 10
hey
are you not aware of this.
this has two parts -- one called primary rainbow and other called secondary rainbow.
secondary has its colors in a reverse order as that of primary.
it is natural phenomenon and not created by me
@Biomechanoid (2923)
• Estonia
12 Feb 10
Yes, I was lucky to see such phenomenon too. I must admit it was a beautiful sight, although the rainbows weren't long. I only saw some fragments of them, but it was still a very nice view. I've also seen a rainbow in winter, it was like -35 degrees Celsius. I am not sure, if it was really a rainbow. There was like a very small and short rainbow, it only had very light colors in it: orange, red, yellow, pink. Have you ever seen something like that?
@quickstar (268)
• India
13 Feb 10
no i haven't seen this kind of phenomenon and that too in a -35 c situation.
well that must have been very beautiful indeed , i guess.
actually these colors can appear any where if water , or vapours act as a prism in front of sunlight.
As owlwing just explained the whole formation steps.
@hansraj89 (63)
• India
20 Feb 10
Hi star
i haven't seen a double rainbw ever,but i think double rainbows are possible as it is a light phenomenon which is possible......
i want to see double rainbow....
