Brocken spectre

A solar glory and the Spectre of the Brocken observed in San Francisco.

A fog bow, solar glory and Brocken spectre observed at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

A shadow of a plane is not the Spectre of the Brocken, but just a shadow

A Brocken spectre (German Brockengespenst), also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre is the apparently enormously magnified shadow of an observer, when the Sun is low, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds. If the observer is in an aeroplane, the shadow of the aeroplane is cast. The phenomenon can appear on any misty mountainside or cloud bank, but the frequent fogs and low-altitude accessibility of the Brocken, a peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany, have created a local legend. The spectre was observed and described by Johann Silberschlag in 1780, and has since been recorded often in literature about the region. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 739 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Brocken spectre Metadata This file contains... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 739 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Brocken spectre Metadata This file contains... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 534 pixelsFull resolution (1000 × 667 pixel, file size: 347 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) The picture was taken from Golden Gate Bridge The picture shows ,solar glory and Spectre of the Brocken Photograped by Mila Zinkova in September of 2006... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 534 pixelsFull resolution (1000 × 667 pixel, file size: 347 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) The picture was taken from Golden Gate Bridge The picture shows ,solar glory and Spectre of the Brocken Photograped by Mila Zinkova in September of 2006... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 491 pixelsFull resolution (3619 × 2222 pixel, file size: 3. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 491 pixelsFull resolution (3619 × 2222 pixel, file size: 3. ... NASA photo Glory with aircraft shadow in the center. ... The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixelsFull resolution (3456 × 2304 pixel, file size: 4. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixelsFull resolution (3456 × 2304 pixel, file size: 4. ... Shadows on pavement A shadow is a region of darkness where light is blocked. ... The Brocken, or Blocksberg, is the highest peak (1,141 metres) in the Harz Mountains in Germany (located between the rivers Weser and Elbe) and also the highest peak of northern Germany. ... The Harz is a mountain range in northern Germany. ... Johann Esaias Silberschlag (1721 – 1791), was born in Aschersleben, Germany. ... 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

The "spectre" appears when the sun shines from behind a climber who is looking down from a ridge or peak into mist. The light projects the climber's shadow forward through the mist, often in an odd triangular shape due to perspective. The apparent magnification of size of the shadow is an optical illusion that occurs when the observer judges his shadow on relatively nearby clouds to be at the same distance as faraway land objects seen through gaps in the clouds. The shadow also falls on water droplets of varying distances from the eye, confusing depth perception. The ghost can appear to move (sometimes quite suddenly) because of the movement of the cloud layer. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Perspective when used in the context of vision and visual perception refers to the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes or dimension and the position of the eye relative to the objects. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with illusion. ... Water dropping from a faucet A drop is a small volume of liquid, bounded completely or almost completely by free surfaces. ... Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions. ...

The head of the figure is often surrounded by the glowing halo-like rings of a glory (Heiligenschein), rings of coloured light that appear directly opposite the sun when sunlight is reflected by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. A halo (Greek: ; also known as a nimbus, glory, or Gloriole) is a ring of light that surrounds an object. ... NASA photo Glory with aircraft shadow in the center. ... Heiligenschein (holy light) is the name for an optical effect which creates a bright spot around the shadow of a persons head when this person is looking at it. ...