Do rainbows ever turn inside out?

[CplFerro]

I've never much studied rainbows, but recently it occurred to me to ask, do rainbows ever turn inside out, so that the inner colours are outside and vice versa? A quick Google Image search came up with photographs showing only rainbows with ROY.G.BIV extending from the outside-in, never inside-out.

Can such a reverse rainbow be?

[The_Fire]

Yes they do.
Take a look at this:

ETA: Take a closer look at the outside one.

source: http://www.weatherpictures.nl/rainbow.html

http://www.weatherpictures.nl/pictures/17040022.jpg

[Mojo]

I've never much studied rainbows, but recently it occurred to me to ask, do rainbows ever turn inside out, so that the inner colours are outside and vice versa? A quick Google Image search came up with photographs showing only rainbows with ROY.G.BIV extending from the outside-in, never inside-out.

Can such a reverse rainbow be?Sometimes a secondary rainbow is visible, and it has its colours reversed, with the red on the inside. I saw one* a few months ago which also had a series of supernumary rainbows inside the main one. See here (http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/rainbows/sec.htm).

ETA: *Very much like the one that The Fire has just posted a picture of!

[Moon-Spinner]

I once took a photo of a triple rainbow, but when I got my pictures back, the photo, and negative were missing. The negative would have been in the middle of the film, but it was just... Missing...

[brodski]

I once took a photo of a triple rainbow, but when I got my pictures back, the photo, and negative were missing. The negative would have been in the middle of the film, but it was just... Missing...

that's because the "triple rainbow" was caused by "Chem-Trails", it looks like the conspiracy got to your photo lab. :jaw-dropp

[MRC_Hans]

A full rainbow display is double, with opposite sequences of the colors. Depending on conditions, when you see a single rainbow, you might see one or the other, thus, the colors may be reversed.

I don't know how a triple rainbow comes about,

Hans

[IIRichard]

I saw a Moonbow one night in the Carribean. It was too faint to show color. This has nothing to do with the original post but I thought it was cool.

IIRichard

[CplFerro]

Dear The Fire & Mojo,

Thanks for the evidence. I still wonder if anyone has ever seen an inverse rainbow by itself - perhaps if a perfectly curved cloud formation blocks the first one, or would that be cheating?

I have seen a circular rainbow around Sol one time - I wonder further if this could ever be inverted, or whether a second, inverted one would ever display around the first.

Cpl Ferro

[Mercutio]

Find and read Isaac Newton's 1674 treatise on optics. He was the first to describe how the rainbow is produced and seen--double rainbow and all. Very, very cool to read.

[Earthborn]

He was the first to describe how the rainbow is produced and seen--double rainbow and all.No, he wasn't the first... (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?postid=1420560#post1420560)

[Ziggurat]

I saw a Moonbow one night in the Carribean. It was too faint to show color. This has nothing to do with the original post but I thought it was cool.

IIRichard

I saw one of those once too, but it was in the mist at the bottom of Yosemite falls. I think I could see a little bit of color, but it certainly was harder to make out than a rainbow.

[Mercutio]

No, he wasn't the first... (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?postid=1420560#post1420560)
Wow... thanks!

[Mercifull]

So are those true rainbows? or reflections of the original one?

[sphenisc]

You can download a halo simulator from here...

http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/halo/downld.htm

It demonstrates a variety of atmospheric refraction phenomena, (and it's fun too).