The sun shining behind the observer projects their shadow through the mist, while the magnification of the shadow is an optical illusion which makes the shadow on nearby clouds seem at the same distance at faraway landmarks seen through the cloud. The tower continued functioning until September 1939, when the authorities suspended broadcasting on the outbreak of World War II.

Linda is a regular tutor for the Arvon Foundation and is a member of the Society of Authors and the Scattered Authors' Society. As light is made up of several colours, when it is refracted these colours can bend at different amounts and become individually visible. She published her first novel Run with the Hare in 1988, while still working as an English teacher in a comprehensive school. Glories are common in high-latitude regions where the low sun angle allows a person to easily come between the sun and a fog or cloud bank. In addition, animal and human sacrifices were offered by the Saxons to their supreme god, Odin, on the blockfields of the summit until they renounced them as part of their baptismal vows when Christianity spread to the region under Charles the Great.

The Brocken Spectre phenomenon is an optical illusion created when low sun shines behind someone looking down into fog from a ridge. The song "Born in a Burial Gown" by Cradle of Filth (from the album Bitter Suites to Succubi) contains an allusion to the Brocken's history as a witches' gathering-place. Since the shadow of one's own head appears only in the anti-solar direction, it makes sense that the glory ring will always be in the vicinity of the head's shadow. Brocken House ( Brockenhaus), the modern information centre for the Harz National Park, is located in the converted " Stasi Mosque" ( Stasi-Moschee), a former surveillance installation for the Ministry for State Security. In James Hogg's novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) the Brocken spectre is used to suggest psychological horror.

Most air travelers have observed glories in the vicinity of their aircraft's shadow on the clouds below. Named after the German mountain where it was first noted, a Brocken Spectre is a large shadow of an observer cast onto cloud or mist. According to legend, the name came from the unhappy circumstance of a climber on northern Germany's highest mountain, the Brocken.Depending on circumstances (such as the uniformity of droplet size in the clouds), one or more of the glory's rings can be visible. The Brocken Garden, a botanical garden, was laid out in 1890 by Professor Albert Peter of Göttingen University on an area of 4,600m 2 (50,000sqft) granted by Count Otto of Stolberg-Wernigerode. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. Its Low German name, broken, as the mountain had become named in 1176 in the Saxon World Chronicle and also in English, means "broken".

The "spectre" appears when the sun shines from behind the observer, who is looking down from a ridge or peak into mist or fog.Our resources are crucial for knowledge lovers everywhere—so if you find all these bits and bytes useful, please pitch in. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys hiking, film photography, and studying law while cuddling with her cat Georgia. Bottom line: The Brocken Spectre is your own shadow cast on mists below you, often spotted by those in the mountains. The Brocken also holds the record for the greatest number of days of mist and fog in a single calendar year in Germany, 330 days in 1958, [5] and has an average of 120 days of snowfall per year. The 100-kilometre-long (62mi) Harz Witches' Path also runs from the Brocken eastwards to Thale and westwards via Torfhaus and Altenau to Osterode.