The Electric Green Flash Test

Recently I’ve been watching a lot of sunsets and I’ve learned a few things. The sunset is much more than just the moment when the sun drops below the horizon. Actually the sun setting is really just a opening act for the real show of colors that begins AFTER the sun has set, a show which may go on for a good half an hour. The area where the sun set glows yellow and orange like a bonfire left to burn out, but as the show goes on any clouds in the rest of the sky light up with a whole range of pinks which brings me to the other thing I’ve learned about sunsets. They’re not just about that one spot on the horizon where the sun sets. A good sunset stretches out along the horizon and even touches the middle of the sky. I like to look at the pink clouds but I also notice the more subtle blue part of the show. As my gaze moves from the orange of the horizon upward I see yellow which fades and becomes the lightest of blues which in turn deepens until it is a nightfall violet high in the sky. And of course every sunset is unique.

And then there’s “The Green Flash,” a brief glimmer of green sometimes visible just after sunset. It may sound like a myth, but there is a scientific explanation for it which I won’t go into here. Brain swore he saw it. Sally said she didn’t. I thought I saw something but I described it as more of a dot than a flash. Maybe it’s like a Rorschach test. I think I’ll keep looking.