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Saint Who's fire?

Subject: Saint Who's fire?
From: Syd Curtis <>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 20:36:00 +1000
Doug,

        Please grant me the indulgence of one off-topic question.

In my posting about Lord Howe Island and its so friendly birds, I mentioned
seeing St Anthony's Fire from a LHI restaurant.  Martyn Stewart very rightl=
y
asks,
>
> Lastly, what the hell is St Anthony's fire? Is this the equivalent of our
> northern Lights?
>
I confidently turned to my Scientific Dictionary to give him an
authoritative answer only to find that I've got the wrong name.  The
Dictionary refers to something completely different for St Anthony's fire.
And worse there was no indication of the right name among the Saints.

Somewhere years ago, I read of the phenomenon of a flash of green light,
just at the moment when the upper edge of the sun finally disappears below
the horizon at sea.  My recollection is that one had to be in fairly high
latitudes to get this, and therefore I was both surprised and delighted whe=
n
watching the sun setting from the restaurant at Capella South on LHI to see
a very definite green flash.

Now it will annoy me until I can find the right name.  PLEASE, someone on
naturerecordists, which Saint's name should I have been using?  And if you
can tell us what causes it, so much the better.

TIA

Syd Curtis (Brisbane, Australia)







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