Comments on: The Brocken Spectre

By: Daz

Daz — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:21:34 +0000

Anthelion! (ann-thell-e-on) from my Collins dictionary means: a faint halo sometimes seen in high altitude regions around a shadow cast onto fog.
Related to rainbows, I think. If you are up high, say in a tower or on a hill looking out into a valley with the sun behind you, rainbows are circular.
You also get them if you look at your own shadow in dewy grass, especially in moonlight.
A most beautiful word for a beautiful phenomenon

Thanks SoLo! I love this stuff!

By: Elan Soltes

Elan Soltes — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:33:40 +0000

One last try. http://www.atoptics.co.uk

By: Elan Soltes

Elan Soltes — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:32:38 +0000

No idea how Utah Busines made it into my last comment. Hopefully this will pass the atmospheric optics site along.

By: Elan Soltes

Elan Soltes — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:30:13 +0000

There’s a great website full of examples and explanations of various atmospheric optical phenomena.
Brocken spectre is there.

I discovered the site after a cross-country flight where I saw a shadow of our plane with a halo around it cast on the clouds below us -called a “glory.”

The web site’s at

By: Namowal

Namowal — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:22:28 +0000

I found a video of the Brocken spectre here.

By: Ali S.

Ali S. — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:52:27 +0000

I used to live near a large wooded area when I was a kid in Oakville, Ontario. When it used to get foggy in the morning and I was biking about the things you THINK you saw through the fog scared the pants off of me.

By: JC

JC — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:33:06 +0000

Wow, thanks for sharing this info.

By: SoLo

SoLo — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:02:15 +0000

The projected shadow can be pretty startling especially when the fog bank is stratified and moving. For me though, the “glory” seen around the head of the observer’s shadow is the most fascinating.

Related phenomena (without the projected shadow) include sylvanshine, heiligenschein (‘holy light’), and to a lesser degree, aureoles, coronae, and irisation (the iridescent hues sometimes seen around the edges of clouds).

When ice crystals are involved, atmospheric halos of many kinds are possible. These include “parhelia” (aka, ‘sundogs’)and parahelic arcs, paranthelia and parenthelic arcs, circumzenithal and circumhorizontal arcs, the “anthelion” and anthelic arcs, Parry arcs, heliac arcs, and pillars (to name a few- there are 30+ different types!). BTW, all of these fall under the category of “meteorological optics”, if you want to do some research.

By: gail

gail — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:07:35 +0000

Indeed! Nonist comments about these in his post.

By: red

red — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:17:51 +0000

Inspiring stories about ghost and/or alien sightings throughout time, I’m sure.