I witnessed the phenomenon known as the green flash, yesterday in the English channel just south of the bill of Portland. It is a rare enough occurrence up in these waters and I have seen it only a handful of times since I’ve been at sea.
So what is it?
From Bowditch “The American Practical Navigator” (a book every mariner should own…and if not it’s online http://www.irbs.com/bowditch/ )
Green flash. A brilliant green coloring of the upper edge of the sun as it
appears at sunrise or disappears at sunset when there is a clear, distinct
horizon. It is due to refraction by the atmosphere, which disperses
the first (or last) spot of light into a spectrum and causes the
colors to appear (or disappear) in the order of refrangibility. The
green is bent more than red or yellow and hence is visible sooner at
sunrise and later at sunset.
The same colour as the gin bottle featured above. Needless to say I would have tried to take a photograph if I had had a daysunt camera….I didn’t have but maybe Santy will be kind to me this Christmas.
The Victory Gin by the way to be had at all good George Orwell 1984 reunions? (seen at Cardiff Airport of all places)
Anyone else seen the Green Flash?
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Yes, once here facing toward the Pacific off Point Loma California. There is a web site with photos too.
Searching for the green flash seems to be a persistant hobby for the 4-8 watch for obvious reasons.
I had maybe seen it once or twice before getting to my last ship. That one spent almost all it’s time in and around the middle east and there we saw it all the time.
You really have to see it to truly appreciate it. Bowditch of course is the reference to go to for winning bets that the sun turns green!
I have seen it once while crossing westward over the pacific in 1993. Oddly a lot of sailors seem to think it doesnt exist – they should probably try harder to spot it!
I remember the first time I witnessed the green flash, I thought that I was hallucinating, or that the second mate had put something on the binoculars. He showed me the text in Bowditch, to reassure me, there was so much piss-taking and practical jokes on that ship that staging the so well named “green flash” was very probable.