© Ronny TertnesThe Green Flash
"There was a visible green flash in the sunset on April 29th," says Tertnes. "But that's not all. Just before the green flash, there was a very blue glow visible along the sun's upper edge--even more blue than I managed to capture in the photo."
Green flashes are formed when the prismatic action of the atmosphere splits the setting sun into basic R-G-B colors. Temperature inversions create a mirage, magnifying the green into an eye-catching flash.
Blue flashes are formed in the same way, but they are rarely seen. Why? Because blue light is scattered strongly by molecules in the air. The same Rayleigh scattering that smears blue light around the daytime sky also disperses and mutes sunset blue flashes.
Tertnes saw it anyway. "It was a great sunset," he says.
© Ronny TertnesThe Blue Flash
Comment: Also reported by Space Weather was the moon's 'golden handle', a common occurrence and yet still awesome:
THE GOLDEN HANDLE
Once a month, about 4 days before the full Moon, the sun rises behind the Moon's towering Jura Mountains. For a few magic hours, sunlight dances along the mountain crest while the hardened lava plains below remain in darkness. These are the hours of the Golden Handle. Peter Lowenstein observed the phenomenon on April 26th from Mutare, Zimbabwe:
"I was lucky to catch it," says Lowenstein. "The night sky was perfectly clear when the crest of the Jura Mountains lit up, curving around the edge of Sinus Iridium (the Bay of Rainbows) to form the Golden Handle. This only happens when the Moon is about 11 days old."
The Golden Handle was famously depicted in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: a Space Odyssey when the lunar lander Aries departed en route to the Moon. It's next appearance is slated for May 25, 2018, when the sun rises again over Montes Jura. Lunar photographers, mark your calendar.
© Peter LowensteinThe golden handle (upper right side of the moon)
Another shot of the golden handle
Comment: From the activity in the skies to the shifting ground beneath our feet, our world is changing, and this is evidenced by the increasingly regular sightings of what once were rare phenomena, as well as sights that have never been seen before and remain unexplained: