The "spectre" appears when the sun shines from behind the observer, who is looking down from a ridge or peak into mist or fog. The light projects the observer's shadow through the mist, often in a triangular shape due to … See more

Before the first reports of the phenomenon in Europe, two members of the French Geodesic Mission to the Equator, Antonio de Ulloa and Pierre Bouguer, reported that while walking near the summit of the Pambamarca mountain, … See more

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Constancy to an Ideal Object" concludes with an image of the Brocken spectre:
And art thou nothing? Such thou art, as when The woodman winding westward up the glen At … See more