Hovering in the sky, this rainbow cloud over Mount Everest took an astonished astronomer by surprise。

盘踞在珠穆朗玛峰上空中的彩虹云让一名天文学家震惊不已。

Oleg Bartunov, 51, caught the spectacle on camera during a Himalayas expedition in Nepal。

51岁的奥勒格·巴尔图诺夫在尼泊尔考察喜马拉雅山时拍下了这一奇观。

The phenomenon is caused by light reflecting off tiny ice crystals inside the body of the cloud's water vapour。

云中的水蒸气里含有细小的冰晶，它们反射的光线形成了这一现象。

'I only took a couple of shots as I was overwhelmed with feelings and wanted to see everything with my eyes and prolong the moment,' Mr Bartunov said。

巴尔图诺夫说：“我只拍了2张照片，我太激动了，想要看着这一切，希望时间能够过的慢点。”

'The light was coming from the sun, which was right under the clouds at the perfect angle to create the magical effect.'

“光线来自云背后的太阳，角度刚刚好，形成了这个魔幻效果。”

When he witnessed the event he could hardly believe this eyes, so asked others nearby to confirm that it really was a rainbow cloud。

当看见这些时，他几乎不敢相信自己的眼睛，于是向附近的人确认这是否真的是彩虹云。

Mr Bartunov, who is a fellow at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in Moscow, said: 'There was a group of elderly English women there.’

莫斯科斯特恩伯格天文研究所的学者巴尔图诺夫说：“那儿有一群英国老妇。”

'I told them to look at the clouds and they started to moan and sigh and started to photograph the clouds with their small photo cameras.'

“我让她们看云，她们一边感叹一边用小相机拍起云来。”

'Later I asked many local people who were there if they saw these clouds,' he added. 'Not many had seen them before either, so it must be a very rare event.’

“后来我问不少在场当地人有没有看见那些云。很多人之前也没见过，所以它一定很罕见的。”

‘It's not a surprise as people rarely watch the sky at that altitude because the sun's rays are more harmful to the eyes up there.'

“那个海拔的人们不怎么抬头看天，这并不奇怪，因为那里的阳光对眼睛有害。”