Green Flash Captured on Film!

Hello everyone, it’s Jenn! I told you I’d be popping in from time to time, so here I am! Something pretty amazing was captured on film the other night, and I am very excited to tell you about it!

So if you’ve read the site over the years, you’re probably familiar with Steve Simonsen. He’s a photographer here on island, and his images are absolutely stunning. Well ever since this pandemic began, Steve and his wife Janet have been posting live sunset feeds over on their Facebook page every night between 6:20 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (The current sunset time in Cruz Bay is just before 7 p.m.) They’ve captured the sunset from a variety of spots around the island including Trunk Bay, Mermaid’s Chair in Hawksnest Bay and from the top of Caneel Hill to name a few.

This past Wednesday night, Steve and Janet set up at Maho Bay, and they didn’t just capture an amazing sunset that night. They were also lucky enough to catch the green flash … And they have it on film! How exciting is that??!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the green flash, it’s an optical phenomenon that you can see just after sunset or just before sunrise. It happens when the sun is almost entirely below the horizon, with the barest edge of the sun – the upper edge – still visible, according to earthsky.org. For just a quick second or two, that upper rim appears green in color. It’s a brief flash of green – the legendary green flash. It’s really a super cool thing to see.

(Random side note: Our friends over at St. John Brewers have an energy drink called Green Flash.)

So you’re probably wondering how and when you can see the green flash. Well for starters, it needs to be a clear day when there aren’t any clouds or haze on the horizon. It’s also best when you are looking at a distant horizon. It’s often seen over the ocean, so we’re in a great spot here. Sometimes you can see it over land if the horizon is far enough away.

The key, however, is to look away from the sun until it’s almost entirely under the horizon. If you stare at it as it goes down, your eyes will twinkle a bit and it will make your chances of seeing the green flash much less.

You can check out Steve’s entire Facebook live feed from this past Wednesday by clicking this link. (You must have a Facebook account to watch it.)

That’s all I have for you today, folks! I’ll be back next week with a story about something pretty cool that’s here on island… In the meantime, you can find me over at www.ExploreSTJ.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ExploreSTJ or by email at [email protected]. Have a wonderful day everyone!