Throughout the years I’ve seen lots of different phenomena in the sky but one that have been on my bucket list for quite some time is the very rare lunar fog bow. I’ve seen photos of it but I’ve never seen it in real life, until now. This Saturday turned out to be my lucky night. I hadn’t planed to go out at all but after having a look to the north a saw some faint Northern Lights so I decided to head out to see if the activity would increase.

After an hour or so I decided to drive to another location and after parking the car I started walking on the frozen shoreline of lake Storsjön. After walking a couple of hundred of meters I looked up and could clearly see this lunar fog bow. I immediately stopped and pulled out my camera from my backpack to start taking some photos of it. While shooting I felt so excited and happy to finally see this beautiful white fog bow, it was more beautiful than I ever excepted. And as a bonus there were some Northern Lights visible at the same time.

After a while and while the camera was exposing I wanted to text a very good friend of mine that I was seeing my first ever lunar fog bow. While typing I could see my fingers shiver of excitement and I once again realized how much these beautiful phenomena of nature actually means to me.

A fog bog is pretty much the same as a rainbow. It’s located in the opposite direction of the Moon and it’s height correlates to the height of the Moon in the same way a rainbows height correlates to the height of the Sun. Fog bows are almost white with faint reds on the outside and blues inside. The colors are so washed out because the bow in each color is very broad and the colors overlap.

About the author

Göran Strand is a  professional photographer from Östersund, Sweden, focused mainly on astrophotography. You can see more of his work on his website, follow him on Twitter and Instagram, or like his Facebook page. This article is also published here and shared with permission. Photo credits: Göran Strand