Abstract
PROF. A. W. PORTER, in NATURE of February 18 (vol. xciv., p. 672), seems to think that the “green ray” is more of a subjective phenomenon than anything else, or at least often is so; but the fact that it is seen at sunrise also shows that in this case at least it is not a result of complementary colours. Besides, if it were a subjective phenomenon, one would expect to see it on every occasion when the sun set behind a clear horizon, whereas the sight is somewhat rarer. I once saw a lovely blue flash, and I read a description recently of a sunset in Palestine where the writer speaks of the sun vanishing like a blue spark. If you hold a lens almost edgeways on between your eye and a light and move it until it is quite edgeways on a few discs of light will be seen, and at last these vanish in a green or blue flash, the effect of dispersion.
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The “Green Ray” at Sunset. Nature 95, 204 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/095204c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/095204c0
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