![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sophie-stephens-shot-on-samsung-galaxy-s26-ultra-RWNBP6T4MRAYVMI62GT3M3Z2WQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA 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.<\/p>\n
Sophie Stephens and her fianc\u00e9 John were driving to Queenstown on Sunday night when John spotted what appeared to be a rainbow despite it being well after dark.<\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The next blue moon visible from New Zealand was not expected until December 31, 2028.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sophie Stephens shot on Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Like ordinary rainbows, moonbows form when light passes through water droplets in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
However, they require the specific conditions of a full moon sitting low on a dark horizon.<\/p>\n
The sighting location within the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve \u2014 one of the largest dark sky reserves in the world \u2014 provided ideal conditions.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“[It was] a breathtaking and magical sight that just reminded me how incredible New Zealand is,” Stephens said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Christchurch couple have captured a rare lunar rainbow over the South Island’s Mackenzie Country during an extraordinary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,41605,128,285,60316],"class_list":["post-707127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-science","tag-space","tag-weather-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}