... resulting from the refractive dispersion of sunlight in raindrops. Seeing this rainbow made me want to understand what the heck I was seeing, and why. I'm sure we covered this back in middle school science, but all I can remember is something about sunlight through raindrops. If anyone else is interested this page provides a nice explanation of the magic behind these phenomena. One interesting tid-bit: we only see one (1) color from each raindrop. Wow. So it takes a cascade of falling raindrops to produce all those colors. I'm sure that seems obvious, but when I think about it, it also seems like magic. Regardless it was a treat to observe. Here are some pics.
Look closely at the pic to the left. On the far right you can see the a second rainbow. Taken from the previously referenced website: "Sometimes you see a double rainbow -- a sharp rainbow with a fainter rainbow on top of it. The fainter rainbow is produced in the same way as the sharper rainbow, but instead of the light reflecting once inside the raindrop, it's reflected twice. As a result of this double reflection, the light exits the raindrop at a different angle, so we see it higher up. If you look carefully, you'll see that the colors in the second rainbow are in the reverse order of the primary rainbow." Magic.
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