What is this? I saw it outside the plane window on some clouds. I have heard about rainbows shaped as a small circle, but never as a target like this one.
Update: After a grueling 31 seconds of research, I learned that these circular rainbows are apparently seen most often from planes. They are special cases of being able to see a large portion of the sky from the proper altitude. See here and here.
Comments
Comment by me on 2009-01-10 13:56:57 +0000
Wouldn’t the shadow of the plane need to be in the center of the dot for this to be a true circular rainbow viewed from a plane?
Comment by Pappa on 2009-01-10 21:37:22 +0000
I have seen this before from a plane. Was aware that the “bulls-eye” rainbows do occur when at altitude and you have a potential for ice crystal formations. To bad the windows on planes distort the colors.