I have been in Costa Rica with the Mrs for over a week now. Our balcony overlooks the Pacific and every chance we have had, I have watched the sun set, looking for the green flash.
Finally last night I saw it! It lasted less than half a second and occurred just as the top edge of the sun met the horizon, but it was there. Sadly the Mrs had tired of staring into the sun and thus missed it.
But I got to cross that item off my bucket list.
Next up, the Southern Cross which rises very late tonight and stays low on the horizo
Congrats, I’ve seen it 2x. The 1st was unmistakable noticeable for anyone looking it was not big but big enough to catch attention and definitely green and happened immediately after sunset perhaps staying for a second. The second was much shorter and just appeared as a very small green dot right after sunset, you had to be looking for that one.
I missed it, and it was my wife’s fault. She had to go back for something minor, and we got to the beach just after sunset. But I tell myself it didn’t flash that night anyhow… so she’s still in my will. (What am I bitching about… I’ve seen a lot of other cool stuff; marking stuff off my bucket list that I’d never thought to put on it in the first place!)
I saw it once on ocean beach in San Francisco. Pretty darn cool. Since then, I’ve seen what people call a “green flash” a few times, but it’s more like a green dot.
Growing up 45 miles from the Pacific, I’ve seen the green flash (and yeah, its almost always a momentary dot) more times than I can count. I guess I’ve never really thought about how rare the experience is.
Never have seen the Southern Cross though and that’s definitely on my bucket list.
I’ve started the midnight hike to Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park during a meteor shower and it was amazing even though it was only a handful of meteors an hour.
I’ve wanted to see it for years. We used to teach a class session on it when I was teaching Optics in Utah. I hoped to see it there, but the mountains were in the way. Any time I was where the sun was setting without anything blocking the horizon, the weather wouldn’t cooperate. My boss at my first job took a sabbatical to take an expedition to Antarctica, and he later told us that they could see it frequently down there (it also tends to last longer, because of a “ducting” effect). So I’ve been frustrated for a long tie by these reports of others seeing it.
I’ve had to content myself with YouTube videos of the Green Flash
I clearly remember seeing it only once. We were on the Gulf coast of Fla about 25 yrs ago, and as the sun set, we were talking about how my dad always used to talk about the green flash. Then, there it was. And it was more than a dot - it seemed to spread out in a decent sized “blob.” Way cool. Haven’t seen it since.
