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According to EPOD (and, no, we're not talking about some weird superhero here)
I tried to look for it a few times when I was on a cruise a few years ago, but it was never clear enough - the Sun always disappeared in the haze before it reached the horizon.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Established Member
preeeeety....
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I've been trying for years with no luck. Nice.
Banned
Same here. My brother saw the green flash at Kwajalein (Marshall Islands) a month or so ago.
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I have been fortunate enough to see the Green Flash at sunRISE over the right place on the UP shore of Lake Michigan.
Honored Member
Saw it years ago at sunset off Asilomar. There's no mistaking it; the color is a pure spectroscope green. I was told to watch with one eye closed until the sun is just about gone, then switch to the other eye so afterimage is less of a problem.
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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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I haven't been lucky enough to see it yet, but I've been trying to for a long, long time. Congratulations, To Seek! I'm just going to have to keep looking....
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I've been in Key West, THE sunset city, for over a year and seen at least 200 sunsets, more than two dozen of them under clear, ideal conditions with the horizon being the sea.
Not once have I seen a green flash.
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I was always told that it is next to impossible to see it at sunset, but only at sunrise (something about atmospheric turbulence being much greater at sunset). So, to those APOD photographers, and posters who saw it at sunset: congratulations.
Someday I hope to see it for myself.
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I thought I caught it one night off the summit of Mauna Kea when I was there last summer.
But it's one of those where I may be tricking myself.
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Here are some more picture of the green flash, along with the physics behind the effect.
I have seen in several times, the best was on a cruise ship a few days after seeing the 2000 solar eclipse. I did not see it but some friends watched a green flash that lasted several minutes at sunrise about Sep. 21 some years ago. OK BAers ... how did they do that?Originally Posted by TheAtomium
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Flying westward at a pretty good speed on an airplane? I hear that's a good place to see it from anyway.
Good guess but not in this case. The date is a clue.Flying westward at a pretty good speed on an airplane? I hear that's a good place to see it from anyway.
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My guess is they were at the South Pole.
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That was on, or close to the Autumnal Equinox.
So at the north pole, the sun spends the entire day buzzing the horizon.
Yeah, close to a pole, likely the north pole on an Alaskan Cruise. My guess is at least up past the Artic Circle.
We have a winner ... they were watching from a window in "Skylab" which was a tower close to the main dome about 20 m above the surface. They had a clearing of the blowing snow and got a really nice green flash. It took nearly 24 hours for sun to rise as it circled the horizon.
My guess is they were at the South Pole.
Established Member
Has anyone seen a blue flash in person?
The Blue/Green flash of the Sun
APOD: Blue flash
I'm still waiting to see a good green flash. Every time I see one, I convince myself that it is green due to other reasons (pollution or me staring at the sun).
Vulcan Administrator
I'd never even heard of a blue flash before now.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Vulcan Administrator
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Vulcan Administrator
With the Moon, you apparently get a red flash.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Order of Kilopi
That's clever. I do that when I go to the bathroom at night and then must find my way back through the dark - one eye for the light and one for the dark.
Established Member
I live less than 2km from a beach and from there the sun always sets over the sea. There is very little man-made or land-produced pollution as the only land in the direction of our prevailing roaring-forties westerlies is two small islands off the north coast of Tasmania, then Argentina and Chile.
Years ago when I learnt that the green flash was very rare sight, I decided to look for it and saw it three nights out of four. The third night was too cloudy to see the sun set.
Sometimes the flash is very small and a faint green, but on at least three occasions I've seen it large and a bright emerald green.
Established Member
Yes! And the red flash too.
I've also seen the green flash countless times.
I think the term "green flash" convinces people that they've never seen it. Before I saw my first one, I expected some bright flash like a camera flash, filling the sky.
The green flash is barely perceivable. The very tip of the Sun glows a very bright, almost overexposed green, 1/2 second before it disappears.
But on some nights, you get several green flashes. You need a good horizon. If the Sun starts breaking into sections due to refractions, each break-off piece does a green flash right before it disappears.
From my house I've got a western horizon of the Pacific Ocean from an elevation of about 200 feet, so I see them often as long as the fog isn't here.
Now, my blue flash story:
I was driving in the desert once, due East. I noticed that the Sun was setting behind me, so I pulled over to watch. It wasn't a horizon set, but on some distant mountains. It set with a green flash which is unusual for a non-horizon set. I got back in my car and continued driving and I was surprised to realize that I could outrace the mountains' shadows. I made the Sun rise again! These mountains were probably 20-30 miles distant. So I stopped and let the Sun set once again. Then I started driving, this time anticipating the "sun rise". I watched in my mirror, and when the Sun peeked above the mountain tops again, there was a brilliant blue flash! Again, I stopped to let the Sun set. I wanted to repeat it again. But in my next effort I wasn't able to outrace the rapidly accelerating mountain shadows.
My red flash story:
It wasn't even from the Sun, it was from the Moon. The Moon was close to setting on an overcast night. But the overcast broke close to the horizon. I could tell the Moon was about to decend into the small gap between the overcast and the horizon as the clouds in the area started to brighten. Then all of a sudden, there was a brilliant red flash as the Moon peeked below the cloud line. It lasted less than 1 second, but it was unmistakebly red. It was quickly replaced by the Moon's normal orange color that you would expect when it is near the horizon.
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I've never knowingly seen the green flash myself, but I have seen photos of it, so I believe it can be seen in the right places and times.
Forming opinions as we speak
Vulcan Administrator
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Order of Kilopi
I was once in a crowded bar in Waikiki watching the sunset (great thing to do) over the ocean, and there was a green flash that was so clear that the bar broke out in spontaneous applause. That's the only time I've seen it though.
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