Un-frikkin' believable view to witness

I'm watching a bioluminescent tide (spearment green) while the last of the Perseids are shooting over the top of it. Truly an impressive display of nature on my last night at Virginia Beach.

Never thought I'd see something like this.

Off topic, but I had to tell someone.

S.

Pics or it didn't happen.

That sounds amazing! If a bunch of floating seed pods alight upon you, I recommend kissing the giant blue woman.

Sounds like a truly inspirational sight.

Wait. Sorry. Thought this was the "Booth Babes" thread. . .

Sagrilarus wrote: I'm watching a bioluminescent tide (spearment green) while the last of the Perseids are shooting over the top of it. Truly an impressive display of nature on my last night at Virginia Beach.

Never thought I'd see something like this.

Off topic, but I had to tell someone.

S.

I rarely have those "think of everything I'm missing by living in a town!" moments, but I consistently get them when I'm in the middle of nowhere (e.g. New Mexico, high Sierras, etc) without any light pollution looking at the stars. The whole thing where you don't just see a couple points of light but an entire sky densely full of light makes me want to move out to the middle of nowhere. It's awe inspiring.

I've been there, done that, and you're right. It's spectacular. Looks like Indiglo green (from the watches). Really damned cool. Fun to play with if you have a long stick...it's like acid trails in the sand.

Michael Barnes wrote: Pics or it didn't happen.

The phenomenon is very difficult to photograph, but my sister brought big glass down to the beach and managed to get a couple of shots of it. I'll get her to forward a good one to me. It's quite dim, and there was a unique smell that had been in the air all day. My guess is that it had been there for hours but that we had only been able to see it once the sun went down. At first we were the only family there, but as an hour passed the beach became full of people as everyone pulled out their phone and called back to the rental houses.

The water only glows where it's agitated, so the breaking waves can be seen glowing over top of the water at rest. If you jump on the wet sand it glows all around your feet. Really an uncanny thing to look at. If you pick up a handful of wet sand and let it pour out it makes a bright shower where it hits the ground. I can't imagine what the ancients thought of it.

We were all sitting on the deck together doing what people do now -- staring at glass screens instead of the beach in the fading bits of twilight. My niece stands up and says, "Hey! the ocean is green!" We all reply with "of course it is" and she says, "no, I mean like glow-stick green!" At first I was thinking it was a reflection off of the sky but nope, my brother-in-law comes back after checking it out and says, "everyone has to come down and see this." So all of us did. Quite the thing to stumble across.

So as we're standing there talking about it a meteor shoots down below the horizon right in front of us. My B-in-law and I are admiring just how perfect our last night on the beach is, counting the blessings -- glowing sea, meteors, t-shirt weather, gorgeous sky, breeze to keep the bugs off, I said to him, "let's turn around to see if there's a case of beer on the sand behind us." No such luck, but we were pleased with five out of six.

My nephew was trying very hard to get a photo, driving himself crazy because his phone couldn't capture it. Eventually I told him he needed to put the phone away. This wasn't about selfie, wasn't about Instagram. It was about being a witness. Stand and look, might not last long. It stayed for hours, until all of us went to bed and we saw a dozen more meteors as we stood there and looked at it. Really a remarkable thing to watch.

S.