At first glance it may look like a ghostly shape silhouetted against a rainbow. But this in fact , the Brocken Spectre phenomenon, an optical illusion created when low sun shines behind someone looking down into fog from a ridge. The atmospheric conditions throw the person's shadow forward, creating this spectral apparition. On this occasion, the image was captured by 59-year-old Mikhail Baevsky. Handily, he teaches Organic Chemistry at a university and realised the phenomenon was probably caused by the weather. Mr Baevsky was in the Chatyr-Dag, a mountainous region in Crimea near the Ukraine, when he took the shot.The Brocken Spectre can appear on any misty mountainside or cloud bank, or even on some occasions, from an aeroplane. The extraordinary sight involves the light behind a climber casting their shadow often in an odd triangular shape. The shadow can also fall on water droplets of varying differences from the observer's eye causing confused depth perception. Amazingly, the ghostly figure can sometimes appear to move rapidly when the cloud layer moves or there are variations in its density. The head of the figure is often surrounded by rings of coloured light - caused by light diffraction. The Brocken spectre got its name because of early sightings on the Brocken, the highest peak of Germany's Harz Mountains. German scientist Johann Silberschlag first observed the phenomenon in 1780 but since then they have been seen and recorded many times in the region. (Daily Mail)
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Ghostly figure appears in the clouds (but this spectre is completely harmless)
At first glance it may look like a ghostly shape silhouetted against a rainbow. But this in fact , the Brocken Spectre phenomenon, an optical illusion created when low sun shines behind someone looking down into fog from a ridge. The atmospheric conditions throw the person's shadow forward, creating this spectral apparition. On this occasion, the image was captured by 59-year-old Mikhail Baevsky. Handily, he teaches Organic Chemistry at a university and realised the phenomenon was probably caused by the weather. Mr Baevsky was in the Chatyr-Dag, a mountainous region in Crimea near the Ukraine, when he took the shot.The Brocken Spectre can appear on any misty mountainside or cloud bank, or even on some occasions, from an aeroplane. The extraordinary sight involves the light behind a climber casting their shadow often in an odd triangular shape. The shadow can also fall on water droplets of varying differences from the observer's eye causing confused depth perception. Amazingly, the ghostly figure can sometimes appear to move rapidly when the cloud layer moves or there are variations in its density. The head of the figure is often surrounded by rings of coloured light - caused by light diffraction. The Brocken spectre got its name because of early sightings on the Brocken, the highest peak of Germany's Harz Mountains. German scientist Johann Silberschlag first observed the phenomenon in 1780 but since then they have been seen and recorded many times in the region. (Daily Mail)