Brocken spectre in Central Balkan National Park, Bulgaria
© Maya Karkalicheva/Getty Image
Paranormal activity?. Brocken spectre in Central Balkan National Park, Bulgaria
With Halloween around the corner, we present the ghostly image of a Brocken spectre. Despite appearances, and the season, there’s nothing paranormal about a Brocken spectre. It’s the magnified shadow of an observer cast in mid-air upon a cloud opposite a strong light source. Brocken spectres are rare, but if you climb a mountain at dawn, you may be fortunate enough to witness the effect on the misty slopes.
While the spectre, also known as a Brocken bow, mountain spectre, or spectre of the Brocken, can appear anywhere in which conditions are right, the thick fogs of the Brocken, a peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany, have created a local legend from which the phenomenon draws its name. The Brocken spectre was observed and described by Johann Silberschlag in 1780 and has been recorded often in literature about the region.
Related Images
The village of Aguerd Oudad and the larger town of Tafraout in Morocco
The Llangattock Escarpment in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Powys, Wales
An old farm in the Shetland Islands, Scotland
Shoreline near Tofino on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Full moon rising over Dunnottar Castle near Stonehaven on the north-east coast of Scotland
The National Wallace Monument overlooking Stirling in Scotland
Mua Caves in the Ninh Bình province of Vietnam
Loup of Fintry waterfall on the River Endrick, Scotland
Bing Today Images
