A Christchurch couple have captured a rare lunar rainbow over the South Island's Mackenzie Country during an extraordinary night sky event that combined three celestial phenomena at once.
Sophie Stephens and her fiancé John were driving to Queenstown on Sunday night when John spotted what appeared to be a rainbow despite it being well after dark.
"It made no sense as it was obviously pitch black and there was no sun at all, just the moon and lots of stars," Stephens said.
"I Googled it and realised it was a rare moonbow. We immediately stopped the car to get a photo on my Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and were amazed at how perfectly we captured it."
The moonbow coincided with two other celestial events unfolding simultaneously: a blue moon, the second full moon within a single calendar month, and a micro moon, which occurs when a full moon rises at the furthest point of its orbit from Earth, appearing slightly smaller and dimmer than usual.
The next blue moon visible from New Zealand was not expected until December 31, 2028.
Like ordinary rainbows, moonbows form when light passes through water droplets in the atmosphere.
However, they require the specific conditions of a full moon sitting low on a dark horizon.
The sighting location within the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve — one of the largest dark sky reserves in the world — provided ideal conditions.
Only two places on earth, Victoria Falls on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border and Cumberland Falls in Kentucky, were known to produce moonbows with any regularity.
"[It was] a breathtaking and magical sight that just reminded me how incredible New Zealand is," Stephens said.
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