We had a one of our summer storms about two days ago and I figured it was the perfect time to sit in the office and think about my next blog, as the rain stopped I looked out the window and saw what Author Donald Ahrens of Meteorology Today describes so beautifully: “one of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth” a Rainbow. 
There are few things in life that gives me that inner childlike excitement as seeing a Rainbow in the sky. It is almost magical – immediately I think of the stories I was told as a child. The enchanted forest that lies at the end where fairies and unicorns roam free – the huge pot of gold that is guarded by an angry little leprechaun, and how if you find that pot of gold you will be incredibly rich. Many a times I remember that myself and my brother used to run our little legs off in search of this forest, but alas, always gave up as we eventually had no energy left. Now that I think about it, my mother probably made us run around so that we would leave her in peace for at least five minutes.
A Rainbow is actually an optical and meteorological phenomenon that is caused by the reflection of light in water droplets in the earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a spectrum of light performing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicolored curvature. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in a section of the sky that is directly opposite the sun.
In a “primary rainbow”, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being diverted while entering a globule of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. The most spectacular rainbows appear when the sky is still half dark with raining clouds and one is at a spot with clear sky facing the direction of the sun. The result is an incandescent rainbow that contrasts with the dark background. For colors seen by the human eye the most commonly named and remembered sequence is Newton’s sevenfold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. These include not only rain, but also mist, spray and airborne dew.
Rarely a Moonbow, Lunar Rainbow or nighttime rainbow can be seen on strongly moonlit nights. As human visual acuity for color is poor in low light, moonbows are often perceived to be white.
There are so many different types of Rainbows for example: Multiple Rainbows, Twinned Rainbow, Tertiary and Quaternary Rainbows, High – order Rainbow, Supernumerary Rainbows, Reflected Rainbow, Monochrome Rainbows, Fog Bows, Circumhorizontal arc and Rainbows on Titan. I briefly read through these different kinds and it is astonishing how they are formed, the one that perhaps most caught my attention was the Rainbows on Titan. 
It has been suggested that Rainbow’s might exist on Saturn’s moon Titan, as it has a wet surface and humid clouds. The radius of a Titan Rainbow will be at angle of about 49 degrees instead of the normal 42 degrees since fluid in that cold environment is methane instead of water. One might need infrared goggles to be able to view this spectacle as Titan’s atmosphere is more transparent at those wavelengths.
There is an awful lot of factual information that can be given on Rainbows, I can write pages and pages on how they are formed what the differences are and so forth, but I have decided to keep it magical.
I want to still get excited about the enchanted forest and the prospect of finding the pot of gold. Maybe even the promise of one day meeting a fairy and spending some time in Narnia. So whenever you see a rainbow, think of this quote that I have always absolutely adored:
“Magic exists. Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. It is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live.”
*Nora Roberts 
And you might also be touched by the magic…
*Justine Ferreira
Photos: Justine Ferreira and Rina Erasmus 🙂