Photographer catches spectacular image of the 'green ray' in the Canary Islands

Its one thing seeing amazing things in life, it’s another capturing them on camera, which is exactly what amateur meteorologist Roger P. Frey did on Tuesday evening when he photographed “the best green ray of my life” from Tacande in La Palma.

For many years there was scientific doubt about the existence of the green ray, really an optical phenomenon, until it was exposed by the French writer Jules Verne in the novel The Green Ray in 1882.

The phenomenon occurs when the sun sets over a very flat surface, in this case, the sea, its last rays are highly refracted by the lower atmosphere, in such a way that only the yellow and green colours reach the eye of the observer.

It can be seen as a greenish-yellow flash in the blink of an eye just as the upper part of the sun is setting. It is very difficult to photograph a ' green flash' due to the precise and specific weather conditions needed and the short time it is visible.