A rare weather phenomenon was spotted over Northumberland at the weekend.
Just before 8pm on Saturday January 7, a moonbow was spotted in the county's dark skies park close to Kielder Observatory. Moonbows, also known as lunar rainbows, occur when the light from the moon is reflected and refracted by water droplets at a certain angle to create a rainbow.
However, since the amount of light available even from a bright full moon is far less than the sun, moonbows are often incredibly faint and rarely seen - often appearing white to the human eye. Dan Monk, Kielder Observatory's astrophotographer, captured an image of the unusual sight on his iPhone.
Read more: Northumberland beauty spot named one of the best places to stargaze in the UK
Describing the moonbow, Dan said: "It was visible for probably less than a minute. It appeared quite quickly and just by chance I spotted it and whipped my phone out and took a picture.
During his time at the observatory, Dan has snapped photos of the Northern Lights, the Milky Way, and shooting stars streaking across the second largest area of protected night sky in Europe. And while he's pleased to have got the shot of the moonbow, he wouldn't rank it with some of his best photos - though that is partly down to it being pictured on a phone.
Dan finished: "It's not a great picture because it was on my phone, if I had my proper camera with me I would have got a much better shot. But it was there for such a short time, I wouldn't have had time to set the camera up anyway - it's not great but the fact that you don't see them that often makes it better!"
Have you ever seen a moonbow? Let us know!
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