Woohoo: Green Flash!

[lethargic_man]

For the last year and a half (crikey, is it that long already?) I've been working in an open plan office with plate-windows window walls, on the fifth floor with a view out over west London. Where I used to sit I used to get treated on a frequent basis to Blade Runner style sunsets:

I used to watch these sunsets, not only for their own sake, but in the (somewhat forlorn) hope of seeing a green flash. This phenomenon is best seen from either a low latitude or a high altitude, and requires a clear view to the horizon. (Eight or so years ago in Edinburgh I toyed with the idea of climbing Arthur's Seat at dawn to go green flash spotting, but never put my plan into action.) I'd got no idea whether five floors up is high enough; my office is five tall floors high, though; it has a view clear above the surrounding five-storey buildings:

Now the clocks have gone back, the sun is once again setting just before I leave work, on Tube days. This afternoon the sky was cloudless and everything was lit a lovely orange, and as the last sunlight crept roofwards, I headed to the west side of the building to see the sun set.

Frequently the sun's colour near the horizon changes down its disk, a bad sign for observing the Green Flash—indeed, not infrequently the sun vanishes into a haze of pollution before it even reaches the horizon. Today, however, the sun was so bright even as it set that it could not be looked at directly for more than a fraction of a second. Eventually it sank out of vision behind the long building on the horizon on the above photos. Fortunately, all was not lost: my office is quarter of a mile long, occupying the whole length of the building. Racing along its length, I managed to get to see the sun reach the horizon in the gap to the right of the long building... and at the last moment, for perhaps quarter of a second, its light turned green.

Now it's possible my eyes were merely paying tricks on me, not impossible after having spent the previous ten minutes staring into the sun, but I think I finally achieved a minor ambition of mine and saw a green flash.

Of course, I have no evidence of this; after a year and a half of failure, do you think I photographed every sunset I saw? But it made me happy nevertheless; it's really made my day.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Geek.

It's an interesting ambition, though...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Geek.

<bows>

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

You can't see the flashing on photos. I guess you need to see it in reality. It is facinating though. I did not know about it.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

There appears to be more than one phenomenon known as the green flash; the one in the photographs consists of greenness at the top of the setting sun. The one I saw, however, consists of the sun appearing green—actually, first yellow, then green—in the last fraction of a second before it vanished altogether. That's what the flash is.

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw the green line but as it is with all pictures, you cannot see any movement or flashing or whatever.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Well how about this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T176d9CtnPY)?

PS: Can you please respect the threading when you reply? I.e. if you're replying to a comment, hit "reply to this" on the comment, not "post a new comment" at the bottom.