Seeing Differently

"Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear."

     -  wolfdyke

Circular Rainbow

(color intensified with photoshop)

For the first time, I had a chance to see a circular rainbow from my airplane window on the way from Denver to Cedar Rapids today.  We were above the cloud as we approached CR.  The sun was on the opposite side of the airplane from my seat, projecting the rainbow on my side.

Rainbows can only be seen with the sun from behind you, and generally appear as a semicircle, with the lower portion hidden behind the horizon of the earth.  If you were on a sufficiently high position, all rainbows would in fact appear circular.  Complete circular rainbows can be seen under the right conditions, for example  when viewing the mists from above a large waterfall early or late in the day. As above, circular rainbows can also be seen from an airplane when it flies over clouds. 

Wiki discorse on Rainbows:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow