Reflected rainbow at a fountain

Alexander Haussmann searched specifically for a reflected rainbow at the fountain of the palace pond at Dresden. And with his precise look he found it – but it was faint. With a polarising filter he could increase its contrast. The reflected bow changed in brightness, occasionally it was obvious but then it became faint again. The visibility was most probably influenced by the wind and the smoothness of the water surface that was to some extent disturbed by the falling drops. This example shows that it is not difficult to find a (artificial) reflected rainbow with help of a fountain.

Reflection Rainbow at the Dutch isle Terschelling

It is not the brightness of this reflection rainbow that it makes special, but rather it is the almost complete absence of a normal rainbow: of the latter, only the base is visible. Just before this picture was taken, the photographer Günther Können saw both the reflection bow and the normal rainbow. By the time he got his camera ready the normal rainbow had gone. A cloud had blocked the direct sunlight to the rainshower. Reflected sunlight was still illuminating raindrops via a path under the cloud. The reflecting surface was a small lake about 200 m across and 1100 m from the photographer. The picture was taken on 18 Nov 2005 at the Dutch isle Terschelling, 16:05 CET. Solar elevation: 3 deg.