Anticrepuscular Rays and Rainbow

Provided by: Van Truan
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster, Van Truan 

It's always fun to see a rainbow, and it's inspiring when, unexpectedly, anticrepuscular rays come into view. Observing them both at the same time is truly thrilling. The photo above was captured in Pueblo County, Colorado on September 12, 2007. As can be detected from the high arch of the rainbow fragment, the Sun was just about to set. Storm clouds on the western horizon (partially obscuring the Sun's rays) and a rain shower toward the eastern horizon conspired to produce this eye-catching display. Rainbows and anticrepuscular rays (as their name implies) are found by looking in the opposite direction of the Sun (the antisolar point).