Wednesday 23 August 2023

How to see a Glory or Brocken Spectre

How to see a Glory or Brocken Spectre

 

You can increase your chance of finding and seeing a Glory or Brocken Spectre by understanding the conditions that form them. By knowing this you can be in the right place at the right time.

 

You need bright Sunlight behind you so that you can cast a shadow and you need to be able to look down on a fogbank or cloud.

 

There is no need to be on a mountain looking down onto cloud. I saw my first Glory walking the dog early one morning looking down onto a fogbank that was covering the river Stour in Dorset.

 

If you go out early in the morning as the Sun is rising because the Sun is low in the sky you do not need to be able to look down from a great height.

 

Just a field that gradually drops away down to a fog bank is enough.

 

One way to find the right position is that if you see a white rainbow sometimes called a fogbow over the top of the fog bank if you then walk down so that you can see the centre of the white rainbow.

 

The Glory will be there directly below in the centre of the white rainbow. You will need bright sunlight behind you, so that you can cast a shadow onto the fogbank.

 

Good luck with this it is well worth the time and effort.

 

References:

 

This video explains how a Glory and Brocken Spectre are formed

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpYV63xXtwo

 

Glory (optical phenomenon)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(...)

Brocken spectre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

 

Brocken... Fogbow     

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_bow

 

 

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