A rare double 'moonbow' formed during Sunday's supermoon - and a photographer captured the incredible moment

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The delight and surprise we feel after spotting a double rainbow arcing across the sky almost never wears off.

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So imagine photographer Ben Gwynne's shock while he photographed Sunday's supermoon - and turned around to see a double moonbow.

Below is Gwynne's photo of the relatively rare phenomenon, which he first posted about on Facebook (and we first saw at the BBC).

The UK-based professional photographer snapped the image over a field in northern England at 7:38 p.m. as fog rolled through the area:

moonbow full moon rainbow copyright ben gwynne 159photography.

Ben Gwynne

A rare photograph of a "moonbow" photographed in northern England during the supermoon on Oct. 16, 2016.

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Sunlight did not directly cause the rainbow, since it was well after dark. Moonlight - which was beaming from low on the horizon, opposite of the moonbow - refracted off droplets of water in the fog, splitting into a rainbow of colors.

"I'd never seen one before and getting to photograph it was amazing," Gwynne told the BBC.

"There may have been a couple of [curses]," too, Gwynne told Business Insider via Facebook Messenger.

Gwynne set his camera to capture a long exposure, which helped saturate the subtle lighting and colors. It also brought out the double moonbow hovering above the main arc, plus some orange-colored light pollution.

Sunday night's full moon was a supermoon, or when the moon swings closest to Earth in its monthly and slightly elliptical orbit. Technically called "perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system," supermoons are not only a bit brighter than typical full moons, but they can also cause stronger ocean tides and weather events.

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The next supermoon is November 14, 2016 (the closest supermoon since 1948), and after that there's one December 13, 2016. (We wish you luck in seeing a moonbow.)

Sunday's full moon also earned the name of a Hunter's moon and a blood moon, which are just two more of the dozens of names we ascribe to lunar phases.

Rebecca Harrington contributed to this post.