Looking out my window this morning, I see the sun is shining right through a rainstorm at us. It’s one of those lazy rainstorms with great big droplets that catch the light and look like diamonds coming down.
I’m standing on the porch snapping this picture when my wife comes out and suggests that since we see rainbows out front in the evening, then early in the morning this situation ought to make rainbows out back. I do the forehead slap thing and dash back through the house. Sure enough:
Then my wife takes the camera and ventures out to get a better angle that is less obscured by trees. She manages to get this shot:
If you look closely, you can see this is a double rainbow. This one is not nearly as spectacular as the last double rainbow I saw, but the pictures came out much better this time.
UPDATE: This rainbow lasted quite a while. It was still going when I looked out half an hour later. In fact, it was even stronger. Heather has more rainbow pictures at her site. Also a picture of a duck.
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T w e n t y S i d e d
The conditions that form a rainbow always form a double rainbow. The colors in the secondary bow are reversed and as a matter of fact the primary bow bgins with red, transitioning eventually to violet. The violet band is quite wide and eventually transitions back to red. This is the secondary bow, always fainter than the primary bow. When the secondary bow is bright enough that everyone notices it, it may appear to the observer that the sky “under the bow and above the secondary bow is brighter (sunnier) than the sky between the bows. This is actually simply the very wide violet band of the bow.
Also, when looking for a rainbow, simply put the sun to your back.
…and a fine duck it is, too. Though I saw the post as being “A picture of a duck. And some rainbow shots, too.”