![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Woohoo: Green Flash! (part 2)
Saturday, April 20th, 2013 08:24 pmSix years ago, I posted about how, after eight years of aspiring, and many months of actually trying, I succeeded in seeing a green flash.
What I saw, however—the last remaining part of the sun, in the last quarter of a second before it vanished, being eclipsed from the red end of the spectrum towards the blue, so that it turned from red to orange to yellow to green—did not fit well, however, with the photos I'd previously seen online of green flashes, and I realised there were at least two different phenomena called green flash, of which the one I'd seen can be seen from high altitudes, and another, in which the uppermost part of the sun goes green for a bit longer before the sun has finished setting, can be seen from low latitudes.
Being, this evening, at a relatively low latitude (a little below 34°), and with a clear view to the horizon (across the sea), I thought I'd tryburning my retinas out seeing if I could see the second type of green flash today—and fortunately I was indeed able to. (Unfortunately it was Shabbos, so I couldn't take any photographs.)
I had been a bit concerned as the sun approached the horizon, as there appeared to be a bar of cloud, perhaps a fifth of the sun's apparent width, on the western horizon; however, as the sun reached it, it nipped the sun into two like an hourglass rather than cleanly dividing it, so I think it was actually a refractive layer in the atmosphere.
As the lower part of the sun vanished below the horizon, it acquired green fringing perhaps five seconds before it set; and as that portion of the sun dwindled in size, the fringing expanded until in the last moment before it vanished, it was all green.
Like when I saw the other kind of green flash, I was left for a few seconds wondering if my eyes had been playing tricks on me, due to staring into the sun too long, but the fact the upper portion of the sun, when it vanished into the refractive layer a few seconds later (strangely, not to emerge below it thereafter), did not go green at all convinced me I had indeed seen a green flash here.
Which was lucky, as it was my first and only attempt to see it. (I could have done so on Thursday, but it was cooler and I didn't fancy waiting outside for ten minutes; besides, I was hungry and wanted dinner!)
It was also quite unlike what I'd been expecting of this type of green flash, which was to stay green for longer—but evidently the timescale is something that doesn't come across well from non-animated photographs on the Web!
What I saw, however—the last remaining part of the sun, in the last quarter of a second before it vanished, being eclipsed from the red end of the spectrum towards the blue, so that it turned from red to orange to yellow to green—did not fit well, however, with the photos I'd previously seen online of green flashes, and I realised there were at least two different phenomena called green flash, of which the one I'd seen can be seen from high altitudes, and another, in which the uppermost part of the sun goes green for a bit longer before the sun has finished setting, can be seen from low latitudes.
Being, this evening, at a relatively low latitude (a little below 34°), and with a clear view to the horizon (across the sea), I thought I'd try
I had been a bit concerned as the sun approached the horizon, as there appeared to be a bar of cloud, perhaps a fifth of the sun's apparent width, on the western horizon; however, as the sun reached it, it nipped the sun into two like an hourglass rather than cleanly dividing it, so I think it was actually a refractive layer in the atmosphere.
As the lower part of the sun vanished below the horizon, it acquired green fringing perhaps five seconds before it set; and as that portion of the sun dwindled in size, the fringing expanded until in the last moment before it vanished, it was all green.
Like when I saw the other kind of green flash, I was left for a few seconds wondering if my eyes had been playing tricks on me, due to staring into the sun too long, but the fact the upper portion of the sun, when it vanished into the refractive layer a few seconds later (strangely, not to emerge below it thereafter), did not go green at all convinced me I had indeed seen a green flash here.
Which was lucky, as it was my first and only attempt to see it. (I could have done so on Thursday, but it was cooler and I didn't fancy waiting outside for ten minutes; besides, I was hungry and wanted dinner!)
It was also quite unlike what I'd been expecting of this type of green flash, which was to stay green for longer—but evidently the timescale is something that doesn't come across well from non-animated photographs on the Web!
