Rainbow

On the same day we had the lightning, we had a beautiful double rainbow. It's amazing how a rainbow proves that there are many different colours within the rays of light we are blessed to receive from the sun. The simple refraction of the colours by the water droplets allows many people from miles around to share a moment, one of the few moments that we're all happy to turn our backs on the sun.

We all know of the story of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow guarded by a Leprauchaun. But there are, understandably, many myths about rainbows that have come down through the ages. The shaman of the Buryats in Siberia talk of being able to ascend into the sky-spirit world using the rainbow. Genesis talks of a rainbow appearing after Noah saved the animals form the Great Flood and in Buddism the rainbow is the highest state achievable before reaching Nirvana. Not all myths about rainbows conjure such happy imagery though. Some cultures hide their children away from the rainbow as they fear that the rainbow is of the devil. some tribes in the Amazon are said to attribute miscarriages to the rainbow. Either way, we can see that we all have fantastic ways of creating stories and myths about the things we see in the heavens, whether it be the stars, lightning or anything else.

What is for sure though, is that the rainbow is a continuum of colours from red all the way over to violt, but the traditional view is that it's made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. A double rainbow, as the one in the photo below, has the higher rainbow refracted by different raindrops. The higher raindow refracts the light twice. This double refraction not only reverses the order of the colours when compared to the lower rainbow, but is also fainter because it loses more light.

A big thank you goes out to Paul from Blind Luck, who managed to skillfully salvage the terrible panoramic photo I'd taken of the double rainbow. Just left of the photo was a massive cloud, which meant that which was the only panoramic I could get with the rainbow in! Please visit his site, or join him on facebook as he has some wonderful photos inspired by nature.