In scientific circles, the word moonbow appears to date back at least as far as the mid 19th century, though has only begun to pop up in mainstream usage relatively recently. With three supermoons in October, November and December last year (there’s only one anticipated in 2017), 2016 was a year in which moon-related terminology seemed to drop more firmly into the popular consciousness, media coverage of the phenomenon perhaps offering a little light relief against headlines dominated by the presidential election and Brexit. Other variations on the theme include micromoon, a full moon which appears much smaller than normal because its orbit is at the farthest point from earth (the opposite of a supermoon), blue moon, so-called because atmospheric dust or smoke particles scatter red light to make it appear blue (and indeed so very rare an occurrence it spawned the well-known idiomatic phrase once in a blue moon), halo moon, formed when moonlight reflects off ice crystals in the atmosphere and produces a ring of light around the moon, Harvest/Hunter’s moon, a full moon occurring in late summer or autumn, characteristically orange due to its closeness to the horizon (and sometimes described as a blood or sanguine moon if coinciding with a lunar eclipse), and the rare strawberry moon, a full moon which occurs in June, named by native Americans not for its amber hue, but because it marks the beginning of the strawberry-picking season.

In scientific circles, the word moonbow appears to date back at least as far as the mid 19th century, though has only begun to pop up in mainstream usage relatively recently. With three supermoons in October, November and December last year (there’s only one anticipated in 2017), 2016 was a year in which moon-related terminology seemed to drop more firmly into the popular consciousness, media coverage of the phenomenon perhaps offering a little light relief against headlines dominated by the presidential election and Brexit. Other variations on the theme include micromoon, a full moon which appears much smaller than normal because its orbit is at the farthest point from earth (the opposite of a supermoon), blue moon, so-called because atmospheric dust or smoke particles scatter red light to make it appear blue (and indeed so very rare an occurrence it spawned the well-known idiomatic phrase once in a blue moon), halo moon, formed when moonlight reflects off ice crystals in the atmosphere and produces a ring of light around the moon, Harvest/Hunter’s moon, a full moon occurring in late summer or autumn, characteristically orange due to its closeness to the horizon (and sometimes described as a blood or sanguine moon if coinciding with a lunar eclipse), and the rare strawberry moon, a full moon which occurs in June, named by native Americans not for its amber hue, but because it marks the beginning of the strawberry-picking season.