Rainbow Wheel over Lake Charlevoix, photo by Julie Christiansen

Regular Michigan in Pictures contributor Julie Christiansen was featured yesterday on one of my favorite blogs, NASA’s Earth Science Picture of the Day aka EPOD. The blog showcases earth science topics through photographs from all over the globe with a short summary and lots of links to help you dig deeper. Every so often, the feature is from Michigan as is the case with Julie’s rainbow wheel:

The photo above shows a beautiful double rainbow consisting of primary and secondary rainbows as well as an infrequently seen rainbow wheel. It was taken from Lake Charlevoix, Michigan in the early evening of May 28, 2012. A rainbow wheel can be observed near sunset or sunrise when anticrepuscular rays merge with a rainbow – the rays are the spokes of the wheel. Both rainbows and anticrepuscular rays have theantisolar point as their focus. If a rainbow is visible high in the sky, look closely to see if might contain curious “spokes.”

Click over to EPOD to see it bigger and see more of Julie’s photos from the area in her Charlevoix slideshow!