BS: A red rainbow!

Subject: BS: A red rainbow in south Wales!
From: Splott Man
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 03:39 AM

Yesterday morning (Oct 26) while driving to work, I saw a rare and beautiful thing.
A red rainbow.

I was driving west at about 8am in fairly heavy traffic. There was heavy, dark cloud, and steady light rain. so every car had lights on. There was one patch of clear, red sky in the distant east), where the sun was about to rise.

I saw a red vertical streak in the sky ahead. At first I thought it was an after-image from the lights, but I soon realised it formed a complete semicircle. It was pale red against the dark grey sky.

Did anyone else see it? Or have you seen anything similar?

Splott Man

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 04:05 AM

The whole rainbow was actually there but due to the lighting you experienced, your eyes could not attune to the other colours. I saw the same thing once but never again....Lovely to see and doesn't it cheer the soul when you see such sights.
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: s&r
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 05:21 AM

The rainbow is white light split up according to wavelength by the refraction of water droplets. If the source of light is red (missing other colours) then only red will be present in the rainbow.

How red the rainbow is will be decided by the saturation of the light source.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 06:41 AM

I was in Cambridge (England) yesterday, on a clear bright and almost-but-not-quite cloudless day. I was wandering along back streets and alleys with my camera, looking up at the roofs for non-tourist things to photograph (and risking a serious push-bike accident). In one particularly tall and dark alley (don't know the name, but close to King's College) I saw, almost overhead and in the same direction as the sun, a streak of rainbow. It was wide enough to show all the colours and about three or four times as long. These rainbows are caused by ice-crystal clouds. I'm not sure of the fine details of how it works, but the angles are very different from the rain-generated rainbow and the colours can be the wrong way up, with red on the inside of the curve. I think this is what's called a "sun-dog". I don't know where they can appear -- when you get a double rain-rainbow, the two bows are very cose together, the second one outside the main one and the colours upside down.

I didn't photograph it, because it was faint and I didn't think it would show up well.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Splott Man
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 07:40 AM

You can see sun dogs quite often. Usually towards sunset on a bright day. They appear to the left and/or right of the sun, a few degrees distant. and are part of the halo. Polaroid glasses enhance the effect.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: GUEST,Laoise Feerick
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 07:43 AM

You Uker Mudcatters have all the fun. We're jealous. You have more folk music, more jam nights, lots more pubs AND Red Rainbows. Are you all trying to make us State-siders depressed?

Here in LA at approximately 4:33 Am it is dripping rain and kinda cold - most likely will spit grey rain all day. Little prospect for rainbows of any kind.

Speaking of double Rainbows....ever have Double Rainbow Ice cream? I think the main store is in San Francisco but we have a shop here in LA and a local discount gourmet chain that sells their pints. wonderful stuff.. their chocolate is almost pitch black in colour and tasty too. their big flavor this time of year is pumpkin.


Getting further off-topic and closer to the Mudcat food thread: best Ice Cream in LA: Mashti Malone's on La Brea: Persian hand-made Ice cream by the pint and quart with flavors like Creamy Rosewater. They give you dry ice if you are coming from far away so you can tote the goods home without melts. I think they also have cardamom. they make it with paddles, ice and salt. The name used to crack me up: Mashti malone. Apprently the place was called malone's before they bought it and they just added Mashti to it. Their main business is supplying Persian restaurants but nothing beats their creamy rosewater ice-cream sandwiches on a hot Los Angeles day. they use some kind of cookie that is like a Pizelle or one of those swedish iron cookies. YUM.

I want to see a red rainbow

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: s&r
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 08:02 AM

Usually icecream in the UK is eaten in wafer biscuit cones on hot days and trickles down your hands and chin

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 08:51 AM

We were up in the area of Salmon, Idaho on Memorial Day weekend. It rained as we left town, and I've never seen so many rainbows in one place in my life -- not even in the Burren in Ireland. As we'd drive along one would vanish and another grow, so close that it seemed you could run up and hug them. And most were brightly vivid and complete. We even drove through one.

I've seen a red rainbow. And a blue one, too, although that was kind of hard to see.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 08:57 AM

Laoise, for a red rainbow you could always try Cuba on a wet day. Oh, I suppose you can't can you?

I've seen a triple rain-rainbow two or maybe three times in my fifty-odd years.

Here's a good website for all you ever wanted to know about rainbows, and lots you didn't.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: GUEST,Skipy
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 09:02 AM

no two people can see the same rainbow!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: JennyO
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 11:17 AM

I've never seen a red rainbow, but I found some pictures. The second link particularly has some other very interesting photos on the page as well:

here, here and here

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 11:30 AM

"We even drove through one." Rapaire

Hmmmm. I'm told that it is not possible to drive through a rainbow- but I did the same thing twice. I was going downhill after leaving Newport, Oregon, heading north. There was a low rainbow across the road and I drove through it.

The other time I was with my brother and we were looking for work in Portland, Oregon. We drove north of the city and turned around at a wayside. While we were stopped, a rainbow (I guess that's what it was!) penetrated the car. The inside of the car was colored.

Years later, I mentioned that day to my brother and he said he didn't see it. And I said, But we laughed! Don't you remember?

He said, No.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: red_clay
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 11:32 AM

thanks steve for the link on rainbows!!!!very interesting!

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: GUEST,Laoise Feerick
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 11:41 AM

Steve Parks states:

>>>Laoise, for a red rainbow you could always try Cuba on a wet day. Oh, I suppose you can't can you?<<<

Now you ARE rubbing it in! Yes, U. S. citizans are banned from travel to Cuba for those who don't know. (although I suppose we could do something to get ourselves a trip to GITMO...hehe) It's part of that whole tired Embargo thing that doesn't seem to have much purpose anymore. Some people can get special permission, but it's hard. A Documentary crew and a some amateur baseball players went there a few years ago to try and get a renunion of Papa Heminway's famous boy's team going and they succeeded to a degree, catching it all on film. It was fabulous to watch. The older guys who had played on that team as children were so thrilled to get a chance to play a game with americans. Besides us and the Japanese, Cubans are simply mad for baseball. (Go Redsox Go! don't blow it boys..the curse is almost broken)

Thanks for the Rainbow site. It was even etter than the Giant FiberGlass Bunny who prevents Flat Tires.

RE: Ice cream cones... Americans invented that..at the Chicago World's Fair I think, using a waffle. The typical ice-cream sandwich here is between two slabs of thin chocolate cake or between two toll-house cookies. Mashti Malone's is made with those crispy cookies that are cooked using a round Iron with lace-like patterns. in NYC, where I am from, we always called them Pizelles because you could only get them from little old italian ladies who had the iron to make them and the patience to cook them. I believe there is a spiced scandanavian version of said cookie.

Precious few rainbows of any kind here, red or no... at least in LA proper but it's not hard to see them during the rainy months if you are out in Topenga or malibu canyons.

We do, however, have trees that bloom blue flowers in June that freak my relatives out when they come to visit. Whole streets lined with trees sprouting blue, frothy flowers. When I first moved here, I found it quite unsettling. I believe they are called Jacarondas. It really is so strange looking that I once wrote a horror story set during the month of June, in LA and called it "The Time of The Blue Trees" It was okay..notthing memorable. I just thought it'd be cool to exploit them the way other writers exploit the hot Santa Ana winds which aren't really named after saint Anne like everybody says but after satan. They were originally called the Santanas not Santa Anas. I can find a link for that if anyone cares. Supposedly the homicide rate goes up during the Santa Anas due to some kind of increase in ions or somesuch. The hot winds are sinister but I'm bot sure they are THAT sinister.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 11:51 AM

It's not possible for one person to see the same rainbow! However close the rain is that generates it, each eye will see a separate image that's to one side of the other. It's difficult to describe, but would be easy to illustrate with a diagram, but the light paths to each eye will be parallel, and this will make the image appear to be at infinity (or a long way off, anyway).

Rappaire, Eddie: I don't doubt what you say! Not sure how it came about, though ... I'd be interested to know how. I've seen a rainbow by the side of the road -- very strange! The sun was very strong behind us, and there were were lots of puddles and raindrops splashing about -- it may even have been spray from my wheels. I've also seen the rainbow's end in a neighbour's back garden while looking out of my bedroom window. They were very encouraging when I asked if I could come round and dig it over!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 12:28 PM

Anything which creates a splitting of light, either by refraction though a transparent medium or by diffraction through a microscopic slit or film can produce a spectrum. I would tend to agree that an overhead rainbow is more likely to be produced by refraction in an ice crystal than a raindrop which usually only produces primary and secondary bows.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: DMcG
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 12:45 PM

Ok, for all you scientists out there. I know all about how the rainbow itself is formed from diffraction, but why is the light quality inside and outside the rainbow so markedly different? You can see it very clearly on many of the photos that JennyO linked to, especially the fogbow picture (link 2) and two of the photos on link 3.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: s&r
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 12:57 PM

here is the evidence - Manchester I'm afraid

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 03:34 PM

Here's a photo of one.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: annamill
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 05:10 PM

You know, Honey has tried to describe to me the rainbows he sees when surfing. He says you can see them in the spray when your tubing. (Going thru the barrel of the wave) One of the reasons he loves it so much.

I love rainbows and have been known to stop on a busy highway to see one. I wasn't alone either. Usually others will stop with me.

Love, Annamill

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Joybell
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 06:13 PM

I once saw a beautiful rainbow that seemed to end right on top of a power pole. There was a bunch of workmen in hard-hats, with strange blokey tools strapped around their middles, standing around below the pole. My friend said, "Look at that!" and we said in unison, "So that's how it's done!" Wonderful moment. Joy

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 08:38 PM

I like it when I get one on the page of my book travelling in to work on the tube. The light gets refracted through the edge of the glass partition in the carriage, and if it hits it right, it projects a straight spectrum onto my page. I sit there and smile at it. Once I got asked what I was smiling at, by some grumpy bugger who thought I was laughing at him. I told him about the rainbow and he came over and sat next to me to see.. He was OK after that....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: dianavan
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 12:40 AM

I was once at a four way stop when a rainbow appeared to empty right into the middle of the intersection and disburse its colours all around us. Everyone just stopped and smiled at each other. Not a car moved until it was all over.

The most beautiful rainbow I ever saw was with my daughter. It was Easter and we were in a very small village in Southern France. The rainbow spilled across the sky and emptied into the vineyard. While we were gazing in awe, the church bells began ringing. It was a special moment. I love the rainbow.

d

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 04:00 AM

DMcG: a lot of light is scattered by the rain that doesn't make it into the rainbow. It's scattered at a range of angles such that you can see a lot of it outside the rainbow, but not much inside. This makes the sky outside the rainbow look lighter than the sky inside. Because it's scattered in a fairly random way, you don't get any colours.

Hope that makes sense! If you want something a bit more scientific or mathematical, try the link in my second post.

Liz, it's astonishing, isn't it, how serious grown-up people like us can be cheered up so much by a simple rainbow effect like that? It works on me every time.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: My guru always said
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 06:01 AM

Went through one on a cliff cable-car once. It was wonderful, heavy rain outside the car as we were going down, then we saw the rainbow below us & we slowly descended through it! Lovely!

Dianavan: loved your story of the 'four-way stop'. Reminds me that all people have soul, it's just a question of finding it!

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Splott Man
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 08:04 AM

Wow look what I started! What a happy thread! As if rainbows weren't enough, we've now got ice cream in here as well.

And Selif, if you're reading, the only thing I was on that morning was tea and cereal.

And it was my birthday.

The photos are wonderful.
I understand the physics, but it still stops my heart when I see one.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Cats
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 12:38 PM

Apart from driving down a magnificent rainbow, normal colours I'm afraid, on the A30 the other day, we had a stunning morning sky on the first day in the new house. The sky and the moors were stunning colours and we both looked at each other, realising just how lucky we are, and broke into 'Bright shining morning' as it could have been a decription of Bodmin Moor and the Lynher Valley that day.

Every rainbow is precious, every dawn and sunset is precious because we are here and we can see them, regardless of the physics. Look on the museum website to see the photo of the rainbow over Boscastle a few days after the floods there.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Tansy
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 11:02 AM

S&R: Okay, okay...I concede...The Ice Cream cone was NOT invented by Americans or an American but thanks for that link...I followed it backwards to the home site on cooking and then through various links from that...I found a lady who is selling Culinary quality Lavendar! Yay! Finally, someplace to buy high quality lavendar for cooking. I can't wait to try and make some homemade Lavendar Ice-cream. Also candied Lavendar makes a nice garnish.

I was at least right abou the Pizelles which are apparently spelled "Pizzelle", those yummy italian lace cookies made on a waffle-like iron. Apparently the Ice-Cream Cones made that the 1905 fair which was in St. Louis (sorry, I said chicago) were made from some kind of similar type waffle cookie coming out of Syrian and Lebonese tradtion. THOSE are the kinds of cookies Mashti Malone's uses in it's Creamy Rosewater Ice-Cream, Sandwiches. If you've never had one, you don't know what you're missing. If you live in LA, you gotta try one at least once. Mashti Malones, a Middle-Eastern Ice-cream supplier, is in Hollywood on North La Brea just above Hollywood Blvd. and near Mann's Chinese Theatre. Tourists visting the are can easily stroll down the Boulevard and over to Mashti Malones Ice Cream parlour for a treat they won't soon forget.

Tansy (Formerly Guest Laoise Feerick)

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: My guru always said
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 12:12 PM

Welcome Tansy!!!

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Mr Red
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 01:30 PM

Damn, Damn, Damn - I missed it.

If I am wearing my glasses I always see a red rainbow. Though the brain is remarkably good at filling-in the setails.

I often see a hallo/ rainbow in the sky and there are about two/three colurs, and shafts of sunlight. Without my rose coloured specs these are frar less spectacular and have only one colour.

Black and white photographers will tell you - to get that sharp contrast use a red filter.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: *Laura*
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 01:46 PM

I've seen a triple rainbow.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Peace
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 04:26 PM

I think so, but it was the 1960s at the Electric Circus in the East Village.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 06:53 PM

Thanks Tansy. Welcome from me too. We hope to be passing through LA next year. Hope we've got time for an icecream.

Splott Man, what ever will you get for your next Birthday experience. It must have been a I-can't-see-this-and-be-allowed-to-live moment. Thank you for this wonderful thread. Joy who's seen double and triple rainbows and lots at once but never a red one.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Joybell
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 06:55 PM

But I have seen Ball Lightning! OOOOH! EEEE!

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Tansy
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 10:25 AM

Joybell...when you do come to LA please give me some warning..I'd be happy to take you to Mashti Malones for some weird persian ice-cream.

Other popular off-beat tourists stops my husband and I take people to include:

Picnic at The Bat Cave: Bronson's Canyon
The Great Mall of China: San Gabriel
The House on Haunted Hill: The Ennis Brown House - a Frank Lloyd Wright house conveniently located right near another one..Hollyhock House.
Victorian Los Angeles: A couple of streets in downtown LA with dozens of Victorian homes
Doc Brown's Mansion: a wonderful Greene & Greene Arts & Crafts home in Pasadena

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Splott Man
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 05:55 AM

Mr Red

I wondered when you were going to turn up.

Incidentally, I'm calling the Heath ceilidh on Nov 6 with Cat's Claw.

Oops thread creep!

Splott Man

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: GUEST,Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 02:40 PM

Splott Man,

Should see you there, but the advertising has the caller as WONKA!

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Splott Man
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 07:18 AM

Wonka's got a gig with the dance team.
I'm a ringer.

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Fred (Beetle) Bailey
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 09:28 AM

In my former life as a flight instructor, I was several times able to demonstrate the following to students/passengers:

Flying a few hundred feet above a flat layer of stratus clouds, with a bright sun above you, the shadow of your aircraft will be completely encircled by a rainbow. Tried once to photograph it and failed miserably. It's an entrancing sight, though. Anyone else familiar with the full-circle (yes, 360 degrees) rainbow?

Subject: RE: BS: A red rainbow!
From: Joybell
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 05:04 PM

Thank you Tansy. That would be such fun. Probably we'll be aiming at sometime in April. I'll keep you posted. Joy