--- title: Quadruple Rainbow Photo Shows 2 Double Rainbows description: The photo of a quadruple rainbow taken by Amanda Curtis CEO of Nineteenth Amendment at the Glen Cove LIRR station in Long Island New York canonical: https://time.com/3830200/quadruple-rainbow-photo/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-21T21:23:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:32.711Z og:title: Here's What a 'Quadruple Rainbow' Looks Like og:description: Based on a pic by a woman who says she saw two double rainbows in Glen Cove, NY og:url: https://time.com/3830200/quadruple-rainbow-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57cf2ba4596c8944/6987ec2d06f2c12cc0337d79/quadruple-rainbow.jpg?branch=production&width=600&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 600 og:image:height: 338 og:image:alt: quadruple-rainbow og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What a 'Quadruple Rainbow' Looks Like twitter:description: Based on a pic by a woman who says she saw two double rainbows in Glen Cove, NY twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57cf2ba4596c8944/6987ec2d06f2c12cc0337d79/quadruple-rainbow.jpg?branch=production&width=600&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What a 'Quadruple Rainbow' Looks Like > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=0db1a02f-9491-4937-8415-d5210b0397e7&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Science Of Awesome [Watch (HLS stream): The Science Of Awesome](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tmGTDYff.m3u8) (2:39)  _Published 2013-12-03. The Science Of Awesome_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 21, 2015 9:23 PM UTC  Quadruple rainbow spotted at the LIRR station in Glen Cove, N.Y. on April 21, 2015. Quadruple rainbow spotted at the LIRR station in Glen Cove, N.Y. on April 21, 2015. Amanda Curtis, CEO of 19th Amendment  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 21, 2015 9:23 PM UTC Amanda Curtis, CEO of Nineteenth Amendment, a company that showcases works by emerging fashion designers, [tweeted](https://twitter.com/amanda%5Fcurtis/status/590469469467729920) a photo of what appears to be two double rainbows that she says she saw from the Long Island Rail Road station in Glen Cove, N.Y. Spotting this rare condition has seemed less like chasing rainbows since a German rainbow hunter’s photos of “triple” and “quadruple” rainbows appeared in the scientific journal _Applied Optics_. Raymond Lee, a professor of meteorology at the U.S. Naval Academy, argues the phenomenon is more likely to be seen when there are a lot of dark clouds in the background or when rain drops of the same size are falling — basically “absolutely pouring” conditions, [_National Geographic_](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/pictures/111007-first-quadruple-rainbow-triple-science-optics/) reports. ### Aurora Borealis 1953  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The aurora borealis, a.k.a., the northern lights, northern Canada, 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  LIFE photographer J.R. Eyerman on assignment in Canada, keeping his camera operable in the freezing cold while photographing the Northern Lights in 1953. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ## Transcript >> Feelings of awe have always been associated with feelings of spirituality or religion. It's hard to be an atheist when you're looking at the Grand Canyon. One of the reasons it's so powerfully spiritual is because, first of all, it makes us feel small. And second of all, it makes us question how the thing that's making us feel that way came to be in the first place. A new study in psychological science tried to apply the scientific method to that very unscientific phenomenon and found a creative way to do it. All of the subjects in the study were shown one of four videos. The first was a 1959 interview with Mike Wallace. >> There are very few us then in this world, by your standards, who are worthy of love. >> Unfortunately, yes. >> The second was a nature show with images and footage of animals behaving in funny or silly ways. The third were all inspiring scenes of nature from a BBC documentary and the last were surreal images of, say, waterfalls flowing down city streets. Consistently subjects who would see the inspiring or surreal videos had a greater sense of a universe that unfolds according to a master plan and had a lower tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. As a control, subjects were also asked to look at a series of randomly generated ones and twos and to decide on a scale of 1 to 10 how likely it was that the numbers have been organized either randomly by a computer or intentionally by a human being. Once again, people who had experienced awe were likelier to conclude that a human being had organized the numbers, the sense again being that there must be some designer behind the plan. The question naturally arises of course that if seen things that cause you to experience awe make you seek answers, couldn't looking at space simply make you wanna be an astronomer who are looking at the Grand Canyon make you want to be a geologist? And the answer is maybe, but the scientists aren't so sure. 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