Lava continues moving down the pali ~ Rare moonlit night rainbow

(Click on any image for a larger size)

Even three nights after being full, the moon was still bright enough from the east to produce a colored rainbow inside a rain shower inland last night around 10:00 PM. I took this photo, and the ones to follow, from my home. The right side of the rainbow and a star.

The shower was moving fast so I had only seconds to catch this zoomed in photo; it was hard to lock in the focus in the dark, but at least I was able to capture the phenomenon. In this photo above we can actually see lava reflecting off low clouds eighteen miles away - seen as a pale reddish horizontal line just above the fuzzy treetops. This is the same lava flowing down the pali as shown close-up below:


Taken with a 300mm lens from the Hawaii County lava viewing trailhead last night at 8:00 PM – light rain showers and low clouds reflect the surface lava. The people gathered there witnessed molten lava moving and the occasional tree blazing into a fireball. Those who brought binoculars got the best views. You can compare this to the wide angle night view of this scene I posted yesterday.

The recent inflation of magma has leveled out but appears to still be pressurized near the baseline of zero, according to the USGS/HVO deformation monitors: I expect we will continue seeing the lava moving down the pali in the days & night ahead.