Rare moon rainbow spotted in Croatia 

Rare moon rainbow spotted iin tne skies over Pazin (Photo credit: Luka Rigo)

PAZIN, 29 August 2023 – A rare moon rainbow briefly appeared in the skies over Croatia on Monday night. 

After a heavy thunderstorm passed and a brief clearing from the west, a rare atmospheric optical phenomenon appeared above the Istrian town of Pazin last night, Istramet.hr reported. 

A moon rainbow, sometimes called a moonbow or lunar rainbow, is like a regular rainbow, but it’s created by the moon’s light instead of the sun’s. Just like a regular rainbow caused by sunlight, a moon rainbow forms when light gets bent as it passes through water droplets. 

These droplets could be from rain or a waterfall. The special thing about a moon rainbow is that it’s always found in the sky opposite to the Moon from where you’re looking.

Exactly such a scenario unfolded over central Istria last night, and a faint rainbow was captured by Luka Rigo. 

(Photo credit: Luka Rigo)

Due to the low amount of light, the rainbow’s colours were not visible to the human eye; however, they would likely be visible in a long-exposure photograph. 

PHOTOS: Rare moon rainbow spotted in Croatia

A  moon rainbow is quite rare and are believed to occur less than 10% as often as a ordinary rainbow, which are in themselves not that common.