Brocken ghost
The Brocken Ghost is an optical effect that was first observed and described on the Brocken by Johann Esaias Silberschlag in 1780:
“If the observer's shadow falls on a layer of fog or cloud , the shadow is not depicted by a solid surface, but by each drop of water in the haze individually. As a result, the brain cannot see the shadow stereoscopically and clearly overestimates the size. Movement of the air causes the shadow to move, even when the observer is standing still. This apparently own being can also float without any visible contact with the ground. The other physical conditions on the mountain, cool and moist air, silence, as well as the lack of orientation due to the lack of vision and the lack of neighboring mountains, reinforce the subjective impression of the apparent existence of a ghost . "
Another optical effect, called glory , often creates a colored ring of light around the shadow.
Halos can often be seen on the Brocken , but in exactly the opposite direction with a view of the sun. In the literature they are sometimes incorrectly mentioned together with the Brocken ghost.
The effect of the Brocken specter can also be observed on other mountains or in fog in the light of car headlights. With over 300 foggy days a year, the Brocken offers an above-average chance to do so.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe climbed the Brocken (which is also called "Blocksberg" and is the Hexentanzplatz in Faust on Walpurgis Night) three times and was frightened by his own Brocken ghost - the name of the light phenomenon is said to go back to Goethe.
If one observes the shadow cast by the Brocken ghost on the Sudelfeldpass , one speaks of the so-called Sudelfeldmonster.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Land of the Mountains, No. 6 2010 page 49
- ↑ Wetterlexikon - Sudelfeldmonster (accessed December 17, 2015)