Stock Photo - Spectres of the Brocken, a peak in the Harz mountains, Germany. A Brocken spectre also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre, is the magnified shadow of an observer cast upon clouds, the observer's head is often surrounded by the halo-like rings of coloured light forming a glory or an optical phenomenon which appear opposite the Sun's direction, the frequent fogs and low-altitude accessibility of the Brocken have created a local legend from which the phenomenon draws its name. From The Universe or, The Infinitely Great and the Infinitely Little, published 1882.