Upside down rainbow

[srebbe64]

Did anyone else see pictures of the upside down rainbow filmed in Los Angeles? It was just on the Channel 4 News.

I've never heard of anything like that before - what a strange thing.

[alexkp]

Nope.

Was the ground also where the sky should be?

Sure your TV wasn't upside down?

[Raify]

I saw that, damn strange.

[srebbe64]

Could be of "spiritual significance". Remember the rainbow was created by God as a promise not to flood the Earth again. Maybe he's had a change of heart - and what better place to do it than Hollywood.

>> Edited by srebbe64 on Saturday 5th March 19:14

[rich 36]

inverted rainbow 2003

[Widget]

There's a really brilliant effect I've seen once or twice when flying... If the sun is behind you and there are those perfectly fluffy clouds in the sky, you can align yourself so you see the shadow of your aircraft on a cloud, surrounded by a circular rainbow.

Of course, I never remember my camera on such days.

[Lois]

Did they not just print the picture upside down?!

Weirdest thing I ever saw was a rainbow with liliac at the top and red at the bottom. Now I know all about wavelengths making that seem impossible but loads of us saw it and non of us understood it!

[FourWheelDrift]

LSD can sometimes be a wonderfull thing.

[GreenV8S]

Widget said:

There's a really brilliant effect I've seen once or twice when flying... If the sun is behind you and there are those perfectly fluffy clouds in the sky, you can align yourself so you see the shadow of your aircraft on a cloud, surrounded by a circular rainbow. Of course, I never remember my camera on such days.

Slightly surreal story from Dad, who used to climb mountains in his youth. From the top of the mountain you can get the circular rainbow effect. When this happens, you will see a shadow of yourself in the center of the rainbow (you can jump up and down and wave your arms and see the shadow do the same). Seems straight forward? Your mate ten feet away sees a similar shadow of himself. But he doesn't see your shadow, and you don't see his. Apparently it's to do with the mechanism that causes the rainbow effect, because it is a highly directional effect no two people ever see exactly the same rainbow. Never seen this effect myself but apparently it's a really wierd experience.

[Widget]

The technical term is 'Brockenspectre'. If you google it you get some great images. This is the kind of thing I've seen... but with a baby plane.

[V8 Archie]

There is no such thing as an upside-down rainbow. The only reason you think of them as an arch is the angle you see them from. In fact all rainbows are circular.

[wendyg]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That's quite common, I think. If you ever see a double rainbow, the inner bow goes from red on the outside to violet in the middle. In the outer bow the colours are reversed. A friend says he saw a triple rainbow once, and the colours of the third bow reverse again.

[TheExcession]

V8 Archie said:

There is no such thing as an upside-down rainbow. The only reason you think of them as an arch is the angle you see them from. In fact all rainbows are circular.

I concure, there was a program about this on TV ages ago. the demonstrated it at a firestation by spraying a hose off the top of the tower. Rainbows are in fact circular.

I also remember once driving a ford cargo lorry with bright sunshine behind but in a heavy rain shower.

There were rainbows every where and you could clearly see them being perfectly circular through the window in the door by your feet.

A very strange phenomena indeed.

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Ex