The Moonbow

Today my youngest daughter and I spotted a strange arc of pale glowing light in the sky as we drove home in the early evening. We were quite puzzled by it, as we don't remember ever seeing anything like this at night before. We wondered whether it was some sort of light pollution from afar, but my daughter (who is very interested in physics) also thought it might be some kind of night rainbow.

Anyway, she looked it up once we were home and found out it's what's known as a 'Moonbow', caused by light from the moon being refracted in water droplets. The link explains it much better than me!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbow

It's interesting that to the human eye it only appears white, but long exposure photography will reveal the spectrum of different colours. Hence why my 'Night Sight' feature on my phone camera has caught the colours. Apparently it's not that often you would see a Moonbow (or Lunar Rainbow), as you need a whole range of factors to get the right conditions - (see 'Viewing' within the Wikipedia link).

My photo isn't good quality I know, but I was still impressed just to capture the sight. We both really enjoyed discovering this new (to us!) phenomenon. I kept thinking how strange it must have been for people in the past to see such things and not have a straightforward explanation for them. I imagine you might have felt completely awed or even scared by seeing this.

Edit: I've added another picture of the moonbow as an extra. This one was taken by my daughter and I think it's a better shot than mine :)