Moonbow and northern lights meet in rare photo by Alberta photographer

Darlene Tanner is no stranger to the northern lights, having chased them across Alberta and beyond for the past eight years.

But late on Sunday night, she captured something even rarer on camera: a moonbow andthe aurora borealistogether.

In an interview Tuesday with CBC Edmonton's Radio Active, Tanner called the photo a "one-in-a-million shot."

"I'll be lucky if I ever get one like that again," she said.

A moonbow is a lunar rainbow, formed whenlight from the moon is reflected and refractedthrough droplets of water. It isa relatively rare sight because the moon must be at the right angle and almost full in order to produce enough light. Clouds and city lights can obscure the phenomenon.

Following an auroral activity alert, Darlene Tanner and her partner left their house in the village of Alix, northeast of Red Deer,around 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Theydrove about 100 kilometres east to the town of Castor because they knew the clouds were coming from the west.

"As the clouds started to close in, we noticed something up there in the sky," Tanner recalled.

"As we kept driving, the clouds kept coming faster and faster and then suddenly, we could see the whole thing, and then the aurora really started dancing."

They got out of the car and started taking photos.

"We couldn't believe our eyes," Tanner said. "We were dancing around and so excited about it."

This was the first time Tanner managed to photograph a moonbow,but she has captured other rare atmospheric phenomena before, including light pillars (when light bounces off ice crystals)and a moon dog (the rare bright spot on a lunar halo).

• Icy temperatures bring 'alien' light pillars to Alberta night sky

Both Tanner and her partnerhave full-time jobs and chase the northern lights in their spare time, often sacrificing sleep to drivethrough the night.

Still on their bucket list: catchingbioluminescent plankton and the aurora simultaneously.

Tanner said seeingspectacular sights in the sky in the moment is what she loves most about her hobby.

"When you're standing there, just looking at it, nothing else in the world matters," she said.