Brocken spectre and glory

Album

Images (27)

Comments (12)

Contribute

Add Image

Brocken spectre and glory

Page Type: Album

Image Type(s): Rock Climbing, Ice Climbing, Alpine Climbing, Aid Climbing, Hiking, Skiing, Scenery

Page By: Tomas Kristofory

Created/Edited: Feb 15, 2007 / Feb 15, 2007

Object ID: 269953

Hits: 1739

Page Score: 90.49% - 38 Votes

Vote: Log in to vote

The Brocken

A Brocken spectre, also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre is the apparently enormously magnified shadow of an observer cast, when the Sun is low, upon the upper surfaces of clouds that are below the mountain upon which he stands.

A Brocken spectre differs from the light effect named glory. A glory is an optical phenomenon produced by light backscattered (a combination of diffraction, reflection and refraction) towards its source by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. A glory has multiple colored rings.

The two mentioned effects often appear together. They are quite different from the light effect of halo.

Mythology and science

The rareness and strangeness of these light effects made people in previous centuries found folktales and fables connected with these effects.

In China, this phenomenon is called Buddha's light (佛光). It was often observed on cloud-shrouded high mountains, such as Huangshan Mountains and Mount Emei. Records of the phenomenon at Mount Emei date back to A.D. 63. The colorful halo always surrounds the observer's own shadow, and thus was often taken to show the observer's personal enlightenment (associated with Buddha or divinity) until modern science explained the optics behind the phenomenon.

The spectre was observed, described and named by Johann Silberschlag in 1780 at the summit of Brocken mountain in Harz region in Germany. Because the peak is above the cloud level, and the area is frequently misty, the condition of a shadow cast onto a cloud layer is relatively favored. The appearance of giant shadows that seemed to move by themselves due to the movement of the cloud layer (this movement is another part of the definition of the Brocken Spectre), and which were surrounded by optical glory halos, may have contributed to the reputation the Harz mountains hold as a refuge for witches and evil spirits. In Goethe's Faust, the Brocken is called the Blocksberg and is the site of the Witches' Sabbath on Walpurgis Night.

In Tatras mountains region there was found a fable that if one sees his own brocken spectre, he is in a danger of death. On the other hand, fable says that once you see your brocken spectre for the third time, you will never die in mountains. There is some jot of true in this fable. Due to the very rareness of this effect it is likely that you are yet a proven mounaineer if you saw your brocken spectre at least for three times. Thus it is some reasonable probability that you won't die of subjective mistake in mountains.

C. T. R. Wilson saw a glory while working as a temporary observer at the Ben Nevis weather station. Inspired by the impressive sight, he decided to build a device for creating clouds in the laboratory, so that he could make a synthetic, small-scale glory. His work led directly to the cloud chamber, a device for detecting ionizing radiation for which he and Arthur Compton received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927.

Seeing a brocken is a special experience anytime. What does it mean to you or what are the fables connected with it in your mountain region? Feel free to contribute your photos.

The page made with sources of www.wikipedia.org

Images

Self Portrait

A nice Brocken Spectre!

Halo on Weissmies

On the North Crest

Self Portrait

Grosses Wiesbachhorn -...

Glory on Rysy

zinalrothorn

On Baldy summit we saw an...

Brocken spectre

Hint of a rainbow "glory" above my shadow, on the clouds below the Wetterhorn

Circular rainbow

Rainbow on Srednji vrh

Am I in heaven yet?

Brocken Spectre

[ View Gallery - 12 More Images ]

Comments

[ Post a Comment ]

Viewing: 1-12 of 12

brade

high time

Voted 10/10

High time to colect these in one place, good idea... I like it.

Posted Feb 15, 2007 3:02 pm


	Tomas Kristofory	Re: high time
	Hasn't voted	Thanks that you like it, so if you have a photo od Brocken spectre, feel free to publish it here! Cheers Tomas.
		Posted Feb 15, 2007 3:14 pm

Bob Sihler

Interesting

Voted 10/10

Cool page-- personally, I'd change this to an article. It will probably get more notice that way, and it's interesting. I never knew about this.

Posted Feb 16, 2007 12:20 am


	Tomas Kristofory	Re: Interesting
	Hasn't voted	Thank you for the notice, I'm getting convinced this should be an article, but in fact I copied most of the text from wikipedia and thus I cannot present it now in article with wide audience. I will try to study and thus change the state of affairs and present this topic in more "my" text. Thanks for a note and a vote once again! Cheers Tomas.
		Posted Feb 16, 2007 12:52 am

munroitis

Further contributions.

Voted 10/10

I have others somewhere. I'll see if I can dig out a couple of shots.

Posted May 23, 2007 5:02 pm


	Tomas Kristofory	Re: Further contributions.
	Hasn't voted	I guess you've got pretty enough possibilities to take a shot of brocken spectre in mountains of the British isles due to the its usual foggy weather. I'm looking forward to see some of your more contributions! Cheers Tomas
		Posted May 24, 2007 6:20 am

munroitis

They have their advantages

Voted 10/10

Yep, the odd Brocken Spectre is a welcome sight, however we have plenty of rain, mist, fog, wind, hail and many other climatic conditions. It makes for interesting hiking and climbing.

Thanks for your votes.

Chris

Posted May 24, 2007 4:19 pm

dalton1

Great!

Voted 10/10

Great idea, great photos, great page, great nature! It's great Tomas as usual! :)

Posted Jun 18, 2007 5:12 pm


	Tomas Kristofory	Re: Great!
	Hasn't voted	Thank you Martin. But it is something more to be incorporated into the text, as other SP members stated. Do you want to write some part of this text? I may give you editing rights if you want... Cheers Tomas.
		Posted Jun 18, 2007 8:28 pm

Corax

Albums

Voted 10/10

I usually don't look very often at albums as most of them aren't that good. This one is an exception. A very nice collection of photos on an unusual subject and an interesting introduction.

Posted Apr 18, 2008 11:09 am


	Tomas Kristofory	Re: Albums
	Hasn't voted	Thanks Corax for appreciation. Greets, Tomas.
		Posted Apr 18, 2008 11:49 am

Gangolf Haub

Interesting album

Voted 10/10

And I was researching for the effect in google :o( I should have started here...

Posted Oct 10, 2008 7:51 am

Viewing: 1-12 of 12