Double Bow in the Sky.

 

It's what Noah would have wanted! 🕊️

A double rainbow happens when sunlight reflects twice inside raindrops, creating a second, fainter arc with reversed colors. 

🌈 What causes a double rainbow?

A double rainbow forms through the same basic physics as a single rainbow — refraction, dispersion, and reflection of sunlight in raindrops — but with one key difference:  

the light bounces twice inside each raindrop instead of once.

Here’s how it works:

- Primary rainbow:  

  Sunlight enters a raindrop, bends (refracts), reflects once inside, and exits. This produces the bright inner arc at about 40–42° from the antisolar point. 

- Secondary rainbow:  

  Some sunlight undergoes two internal reflections before exiting the droplet. This extra bounce sends the light out at a wider angle — roughly 50–53° — creating a second arc outside the primary one. 

Why are the colors reversed?

Because of the second internal reflection, the order of colors flips:

- Primary rainbow: red on the outside, violet on the inside  

- Secondary rainbow: red on the inside, violet on the outside  

This reversal is a direct result of the altered light path inside the droplet. 

 Why is the second rainbow fainter?

The secondary rainbow is dimmer because:

- Each internal reflection causes light loss, so less light reaches your eyes.  

- Only a fraction of sunlight follows the double‑reflection path.  

The secondary arc can be as little as one‑tenth the brightness of the primary. 

 What’s the dark band between the rainbows?

The space between the two arcs is called Alexander’s Dark Band.  

Raindrops in this region do not direct light toward the observer, making the sky appear noticeably darker. 

A double rainbow appears when:

- Sunlight refracts into raindrops  

- Reflects twice inside the droplets  

- Exits at a wider angle  

- Produces a second, reversed, fainter arc  

It’s a beautiful combination of geometry, optics, and atmospheric conditions — and one of nature’s most striking displays.

The thing is, if we know what questions to ask, we can in seconds have an answer neatly provided in whatever format and language we require.  Perhaps we should ask AI if - " there is gold at the end of the AI rainbow?"

Art and Artificial Intelligence

 

I uploaded to Google Gemini, one of my images based on a photograph I took many years ago on a New York Subway Station. It included a digitally added image of a nude female in a garden, that I had painted in oils and a 'smock'. 

I asked Artificial Intelligence to recreate the image in the styles of: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol. 

It did quite well with the very stylised Andy Warhol version and not badly with the Rembrandt version. It struggled with both Vermeer and Edward Hopper. 

I was particularly surprised with regard to the  Edward Hopper version, as when I created my original image, I had Hopper in mind.

I am fully aware of the downsides of AI including the deleterious impact it is already having on the  art, architectural, engineering, design and graphic professions. I cannot, however, resist the impulse to interact with whatever AI is, even though this may be 'A dance with the devil in the pale moonlight'.

A Bee.

 

'Bees hanging-on'

A Bee.

Apiaries.

Workers, Drones and Queens.

Buzzing.

Busy.

Swarming on a warm afternoon.

 Seeking nectar in the last nine yards.

A Bud opens to flower and scent the air.

A Bee balances heavy in perfume and sunlight. 

A Pollinator is hard at work in our 

'Bee-friendly'  Backyard.

George Roberts 'arranged honeyed words' June 2026

Don't delete this it's art.

 

'Still life with Arancini and Parmigiana' mixed food media on a table- artist in residence Anita Roberts June 2026.

"A work of art that thankfully wasn't too good to eat! 

Of all the things you can do in this wonderful world, marrying an intelligent, loving,  kind and talented woman is number one in my book!" Said the artist 's husband of over 50 years.

Scallops

 

Some prefer meat and two veg in dollops

But for my money I prefer 'scallops'.

On hot buttered toast

Much better than a roast

And for something oh so posh!

Not that heavy on the 'dosh'.

Add an avocado pear

A treat to crush and share

With your sister, brother or mother

Or your passionate 'shellfish lover'.

George Roberts  June 2026

Sinus Iridum - The Bay of Rainbows

 

Images captured from the Jodrell Plank Observatory using the 127 mm. Meade Apo Refractor and the Seestar S30. Data and image credit: Pip Stakkert.

"The other evening, our imaging technician Pip was using the  Seestar S30 to photograph the waxing gibbous lunar disc. He noticed that the 'Terminator' or 'daybreak on the Moon' was about to cross the prominent feature Sinus Iridum - The Bay of Rainbows. Sunlight had just touched the peaks of the crater walls creating the effect known as the 'golden handle'. This can just be seen top left in the bottom image". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Captured from the JPO
and previously published on the blog

Reynard - Fantastic Mr. Fox Memorial

 

'Reynard's last Stand' - mixed media installation - June 2026 
George Roberts

As most of this blog readers might have guessed, I am very eccentric, so this weekend, feeling not at my best, I decided to ‘seize the day’ and create an art installation for our backyard. Like all art –there is an underlying ‘narrative’.

"Long ago on Maidstone Market in Kent, UK, a ‘cheeky costermonger’ offered me and my newly married wife, a red fox fur stole for 50p (it was a few years after currency decimalisation). The underlying threat being, if I didn’t cough up the dosh, said sad fox corpse would suffer the final ignominy of being dumped in the trash bin. Now even in those days, we were happily ‘woke’, so though neither of us wanted a dead animal skin for clothing, we decided to take the long dead fox off his hands.

Years passed while the Fox sat on a shelf in one of the spare bedrooms in our home. Then grandchildren started to appear and finally we reached the grand total of nine. ‘Sleep-overs’ at our house became a thing and the Fox became a night companion, protecting the children from the ‘black dreamers’ and ‘other nasty nightmares’. He was given the name ‘Reynard’ and was comprehensively loved by all. 

Years passed, the grandchildren became adults, sleep-overs became much less frequent and Reynard sat alone and mute in my wife's sewing room.

A month ago, my wife discovered poor Reynard had become infested with mites but neither of us could bring ourselves to put the fox in the bin. The grandchildren found out about poor Reynard’s malaise and were insistent that Reynard should have a dignified end with due respect.

So we cremated Reynard in the backyard and up-cycled a redundant bird table and a charity shop vase, to create a permanently mounted memorial and art installation with his ashes safely stored inside for posterity".

'Reynard's Last Stand'