Double rainbow

[David Paterson]

Wonderful sky contrasting beautifully with the dark foreground.

(Akira - your images always make me homesick for Tokyo and Japan.)

[John Geerts]

Impressive overview, Akira.

[stenrasmussen]

Great cityscape. I like how the power line towers make my eyes pan back and forth.

[Akira]

Dave, John and Sten, thanks for kind comments!

Dave, I'm not sure if I could be glad to make you homesick.  But I would take that as compliment.

John, glad you like it.

Sten, I always try to utilize pylons as accents in my panos, as they are not removable. 

[Lowell]

All rainbows are double.  The primary rainbow is at 42 degrees from the anti-solar point, and the outer or secondary rainbow is at 51 degrees.  The secondary rainbow is always broader and less bright than the primary rainbow, so it is often hard to see.  Note that the colours are reversed - in the inner rainbow red is on the outside and on the outer rainbow it is on the inside. 

There are also third and fourth order rainbows, but they are seen in the other direction, towards the sun, and are centred on the sun so they are hard to see and harder to photograph - the first photograph of a third order rainbow was made only in 2011! 

Two other phenomenon Akira's picture illustrates is that the the sky within the primary rainbow is brighter than the rest of the sky, and that the sky between the primary and secondary rainbows is darker than the rest of the sky (this is called "Alexander's dark band"). 

Thanks Les for the explanation.  I took this shot with my phone in May of this year.   I had never noticed Alexanders band nor that the colors of the primary and secondary rainbows are reversed.  I call it "the pot of gold is at the mouth of the canyon". 

Lowell

[elsa hoffmann]

Thanks Les - very interesting information which will make me look at rainbows differently in future!

[Akira]

Lowell, thanks for posting an illustrative image.  The difference between inside and outside the main rainbow is very obvious, although the Alexander's dark band may not be all that darker than the outside of the second rainbow.

[Lowell]

Lowell, thanks for posting an illustrative image.  The difference between inside and outside the main rainbow is very obvious, although the Alexander's dark band may not be all that darker than the outside of the second rainbow.

Akira,   I had never noticed that the area to the to the left ( in this shot) is darker nor that there is a Alexander's band.   Once I new the name of the band, google and Wikipedia come into play.  Wikipedia mentions that the relative darkness of the band is controlled by the background lighting.  In the examples shown the their, the relative "darkness" of the band is more or less pronounced by the specifics of the lighting.  All really fascinating and what a resource in the internet.

Lowell

[Akira]

Lowell, when one is going to make an important decision, the info on the Wiki should be double-checked using other sources.  That said, it is true that Wiki offers chances to learn something new!