Freezing Moon

The other day, on a cold late-November night, I witnessed the most black-metal lunar rainbow I've ever seen. 

It was just after Moonrise, in fact, and was totally worth freezing my fingers to photograph it.

Cue Mayhem.

Lunacy for Lunatics

Glancing at the setting Sun and--snap, snap, snap (now, almost a habit)--I was getting ready for some late-night book editing. 

That is, until I realized that the Moon-Lay-Hidden-Beneath-a-Cloud (yes, like the excellent band) was generating a lunar rainbow, the second one I've seen in my entire life!

Unlike the one from last year, I was better prepared: 

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, also known as Caligula, had the habit of talking to the full Moon. (See Suetonius, "Caligula," The Twelve Caesars  [New York: Penguin, 1979], 161.)

Yet I strongly suspect he would have appreciated this half-Moon lunacy, too! 

Rainbows of the Northwest

Even the toughest cynic (that'd be yours truly--in the mornings, wink!) turns giddy for rainbows like a child. And there are many different kinds that I've witnessed and, occasionally, documented in the last two years of living in the Northwest. 

My favorite was a rare lunar rainbow (Moonbow) last year which manifested as unexpectedly and abruptly as it disappeared.

Like a true Nocturnal Feminine.

月世界。

 Then there was an ice rainbow.

I do enjoy riddles, but I'll be nice: no need to bother trying to wrap your head around the mysterious natural phenomena that could've potentially caused this: it's artificial, and was painted by school children. 

A heavenly blessing for someone's home: 

A localized spectral "rainbow" created with a prism (inadvertently) and sunbeams--we, Russians, call them "sun bunnies" (solnechnyi zaichik), so here is a sun-bunny rainbow exemplar: 

Радужный солнечный зайчик!

 And a double rainbow on a stormy springtime afternoon: 

Nuclear Sunset Rainbow

Typical (greater) Pacific Northwest: from a vision of nuclear apocalypse to a sunset rainbow in the span of 4 minutes.

The downside of randomly stepping out onto one's balcony to get some fresh air only to have Nature deliver the above is one's lack of preparedness. With or without a tripod, I didn't shoot from the same angle, so the slideshow is imperfect. 

Next time I'll be more alert and vigilant. Wink! 

Signed,

Perfectionist 

Ecotopia

Tonight, I stepped out to spend five minutes on taking photographs of brooding storm clouds over the mountains, and instead ended up shooting 1 GB of rainbows. For once, Nature must've conspired to reward me for all the twisted ankles chasing wildlife! Fear not, despite my fascination with happy light refraction (and quite possibly leprechauns), I still like disturbing cinema, Nietzsche, and heavy metal!

It is scenery of this kind that makes people become sentimental ecotopians when they move to the Greater Pacific Northwest.

That and the bears!

Obviously.