A THIN film of cloud covered the tropospause at around eleven kilometres above sea level. This thin haze would normally be invisible during the day, but the brilliant light of the nearly full moon almost vertically overhead diffracted through the find haze.
The diffraction through the tiny ice particles of the haze created a moonbow with red light on the inside and purple light to the outside.
The small dot above the right of the moon is Mars. Almost at its closest point to Earth, Mars is normally very bright, but being so close to the moon, it is only bright enough to distinguish itsself from the other stars that the haze and bright moonlight have concealed tonight.
Mars is bright only for a couple of months as Earth passes it once every two years. A shot of Mars inside a perfect Moonbow like this is quite rare.
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