A "grassbow"?

[Bikie John]

I was up unusually early this Sunday morning and saw something I have never seen before. Out in a stretch of open grassland there was what looked lie rainbow formed by dew in the grass:



Quite hard to see here, in the flesh the colour was more evident but it still looked ethereal and beautiful. I guess it was just refraction plus internal reflection from the dew drops on the grass, just like a rainbow in the sky. A you can see from the shadow of the person in the middle distance, the sun was coming from about 45 degrees left.

John

[Jim Ford]

Re: A "grassbow"?

Maybe a 'dewbow'?

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/dewbow.htm

Atoptics is an excellent site, full of interesting atmospheric optical phenomena.

Jim

[Guest]

Re: A "grassbow"?

I can see the "dewbow", as Jim calls it (quite apt). It may have been more evident shot with a much longer lens.

[Bikie John]

Re: A "grassbow"?

Thanks for the link Jim. I've seen that page before but had forgotten about it.

I think that must be what it is, but it didn't match the description. In shape it was a straight line, more like the reflections of a low moon across slightly choppy water, and it moved around as I did. It must just have been some magic combination of the angle of the sun and the slope of the land.

Mark - I wondered about zooming in closer (I had the 40-140 + converter on for rugby so could have gone a lot longer) but decided it was better to have it in context. This is a crop of about 75% of the frame.

It was very strange - clearly visible to the naked eye but disappeared completely in the viewfinder. It was beautiful so I decided to try a shot anyway and see if some LR magic could bring anything out of it.

John

[Zuiko]

Re: A "grassbow"?

Very unusual, I've not seen that before!

[Jim Ford]

Re: A "grassbow"?

When you go walking in grass at this time of year and there's dew, keep a look out for 'heiligenschein':

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/heilig.htm

It can be quite magical.

Jim