Science: Moon Rainbow

When the sun comes out during a shower, the drops of rain deflect the sun’s rays and split them up into their seven spectral colors. There is no physical reason why a rainbow should not be seen when the moon shines, but such rainbows have been rarely described. Last week, Professor Armin Kohl Lobeck of Columbia University, urged by his scientific friends, modestly but firmly described a rainbow which he saw on the night of June 16, while crossing from Nassau to Miami. Said he: “Tumultuous trade wind clouds towered to gigantic heights and there were occasional squalls of rain. About 11 o’clock, when the moon was well up in the southeast sky, the rainbow appeared in the northwest, where a thunderstorm was in progress. The prismatic colors were fairly distinguishable. The arc was complete, the two ends dipping into the sea.”