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Rainbow wow: Anti-crepuscular rays & rainbow!

Posted on June 2, 2025June 2, 2025 by farlane

June is Pride Month, which means that a lot of people are getting mad about rainbows right now. As a wholehearted supporter of the right for people to love, marry & be who they choose to be, that seems really silly but I guess that’s where we are.

I’m sharing these photos because Michigan in Pictures wholeheartedly supports the rights of people to love & marry who they choose, but also because a whole month of rainbows gives me a chance to post about how cool rainbows are starting with this shot of a rainbow with anti-crepuscular rays that Jamie took!

Anti-Crepuscular Rays and Rainbow by Jamie A. MacDonald

My go-to rainbow resource for years has been Atmospheric Optics, and they explain that wile crepuscular rays appear to converge on the sun, anticrepuscular or antisolar rays converge in the opposite direction and you must have your back to the sun or sunset point to see them:

They appear to converge towards the antisolar point, the point on the sky sphere directly opposite the sun. Like crepuscular rays they are parallel shafts of sunlight from holes in the clouds and their apparently odd directions are a perspective effect. Think of a long straight road, it converges towards the horizon but turn around and it also converges to the opposite horizon. Crepuscular and anticrepuscular rays behave in the same way. Anticrepuscular rays are not rare but they must be sought carefully. When ordinary crepuscular rays are visible, turn around and search for their opposite numbers.

Jamie has a lot of great shots in his Stormy Weather gallery on Flickr. You can follow him on Instagram and see his portfolio and learn more about Jamie right here!

More rainbows on Michigan in Pictures!

Out to Pasture

Posted on May 30, 2025 by farlane

1958 Chevrolet by Martin Hogan

It’s been a while since I’ve featured a photo from Martin, but these were such a perfect balance to yesterday’s Grand Prix pics that I knew it was time! Follow him on Flickr or Facebook for his latest!!

Interference

Posted on July 17, 2020 by farlane

Interference by Bill Dolak

Bill captured this interesting abstract of the lines made by two center-pivot irrigators in a soybean field near Vicksburg. See more in his massive Michigan: Kalamazoo County album & a lot more of his photography in our Michigan in Pictures group on Facebook!

Double Rainbow

Posted on April 14, 2016April 13, 2016 by farlane

Double Rainbow, photo by Your Hometown Photography

I simply love Atmospheric Optics for nearly everything about lights in the sky. Regarding secondary rainbows or “double rainbows” they say that the secondary is nearly always fainter than the primary, with colors reversed and more widely separated:

Light can be reflected more than once inside a raindrop. Rays escaping after two reflections make a secondary bow.

The secondary has a radius of 51º and lies some 9º outside the primary bow. It is broader, 1.8X the width of the primary, and its colours are reversed so that the reds of the two bows always face one another. The secondary has 43% of the total brightness of the primary but its surface brightness is lower than that because its light is spread over its greater angular extent. The primary and secondary are are concentric, sharing the antisolar point for a center.

About this particular rainbow from April 2, 2016, Gerry writes: “Double rainbow from the other night after the storms. The weather in Michigan can change quickly, from rainbows to snow. Yep, that’s Michigan.”

Indeed. View her photo bigger and follow Your Hometown Photography on Facebook for more.

More rainbows on Michigan in Pictures.