Official • Shell Fair Guide Inside DAY NIGHT IS PRIME TIME!! Served with baked Idaho potato KIDS EAT FREE!! & corn on the cob Snow Crab Grouper EVERYDAY! Shrimp Open Mon - Sat @11 am Sunday 9:00am Servetf with French Fries & com on the cob 2330 Palm Ridge Rd. Sanibel Island With the Purchase of One '15* and up Adult Entrei You Receive One Kids Meal for Children 10 & unde 37 items on the "Consider the Kids" menu. Not good with any other promotion or discount. All specials subject to* availability. This promotion good through March 10,2006 and subject to change at any time Sunday 9:00-12:00 noon Master Card, Visa, Discover Credit Cards Accepted No Holidays. Must present ad. 2 • Week of February 24 - March 2, 2006 ISLANDER Yes Virginia, there really is a Green Flash When people come to these barrier islands one of the can't buy one in a store — you can't even buy a photograph first phenomena they hear about is the Green Flash — no, of it, although you can find a restaurant which bears the not a comic book character, it's a bit of nature found at sun- name. And so the myth lives on... set only in certain parts of the world, under just the right Or does it? John Hicks is a Canadian amateur conditions. astronomer and a regular visitor to these islands who has Some residents have been known to consider the junon- been pursuing the subject for many years.Undaunted by the ia a mythical beast simply because they are so rarely found scepticism of beachgoers at sunset, he has kept after his on the beach — but it can be found in a shell store, so myth quarry with camera, tripod and filter and 2006 is his year —• gives way to reality fairly quickly. he got it. But the green flash is also rarely seen, and you certainly Here is his explanation of just what the green flash is and how he captured it. — Ed. The Green Flash explained BY JOHN HICKS Photos by JOHN HICKS Special to the islander "1 Occasionally at sunset, the green flash appears just after the sun's disk sinks below the horizon, appearing as a small emerald green ellipse (see the following color diagram out- lining the sequence of events). The green flash fades, shrinking out of sight in three or four seconds maximum. A sea horizon is usually essential in that your apparent horizon must be formed by some obsta- cle lower than your eye, hence the ocean landscape fulfills this requirement. The second requirement is clean air (polluted or dust- laden air prevents the transmission of the green light). The third requirement is an optical aid, preferably a telescope or SIX MINUTE WALK TO BEACH telephoto lens at least 500 mm focal length and more favourably 1,000 mm focal length (add a 2X teleconverter 3926 Coquina Drive, Sanibel, FL to your telescope or telephoto). I use a 500 mm TeleVue Pronto telescope which is essentially apochromatic, with a until the sun is resting on the horizon. At this point of con- On Water, Elevated, 3 Bedroom, 3 Bath 2X teleconverter lens in the optical train. This instrument tact, it is just attenuated enough by our atmosphere to reduce has an extra bonus in that an apochromatic lens has no chro- its luminosity to acceptable levels. Even at this low point, I Call Owner For Appointment matic aberration, meaning that all the spectrum of colors find it too brilliant to look at through the telescope without will focus at an exact point. This aids in resolving the pure using "averted vision." The infrared and ultraviolet radia- 239-472-8578 green of the "flash." tion, although weak at such a low altitude, can destroy rods and cones in the central portion of your eye, called the fovia. Note that it is very dangerous to look at the sun through Damage is irreversible! Beware! Solar photography is for any optical aid (binoculars, telescope, or telephoto lens) experts only. The The Green Ray The Green ray is seen rarely at sunset and vanishes as quickly as it appears. About l/8th to l/10th the diameter of the sun, it lasts as long as a lightning flash only, often - Sanibel & Captiva Islands - -y^ appearing like a light from a lighthouse below the horizon Private • Group • Resort throwing a ray of light upward. Often it is confused with the 239.472.1771 green flash — the green ray being much more elusive and 1223 Periwinkle Way • Sanibel Island spectacular of the two phenomena. It is every astronomer's quest to capture the green ray on www.FLDrSusanND.byregion.net film, although the green flash itself is reward enough for SEAFOOD • STEAK « SFIStSTS Dr. Susan Pataky, N.D. me. As a bonus, an ancient myth claims that anyone seeing 33 Years Experience • Since 1979^ FLASH, see page 24 Dine Inside ~ Two Roorm to Suit You, or OuLiide Alfresco Dining on Our Path, Serving Dinner Daily Sigbrseemg-SunseT Clauses 5-10pm Sun-Thurs ;-•";••. ReiiraL & TOUR Boar p Fri-Sat til 11pm enjoy EKoLickinc; dolphins, scenic mnunc TOURS Nightly Eiitertaiiimefst in the j AC Bar! and Sambel's famous sunsers Sanibel'j Social Scene Best Happy Hour 4- 7p.m. NIGHTLY! J~ifiV.l Es^yy^M^ Well liquor Botite Beer • • ' - i •. • ii • •- v . " A MUM H f JJotiise Wine i m 11 (fnlaimge only) *K' I J n Mine: Best Appetizer Sesame Encrusted Ahi Tuna, Best Booth Presentation 1 'X Crispy Fried Calamari, And fur the 5' ' Year in a Row CUIIed Oysters, Steamed Shrimp, Beer Battered Mozzarella, Snow Crab Legs, Chicken Wings! 472-8138 LUMCH 11:30AM ' DINNER 5:00PM TAKE OUT AVAILABLE ISLANDER Week of February 24 - March 2, 2006 Q 3 Island artist to show newest work at CCA STORY AND PHOTOS BY ANNE W. BELLEW awbellew @ breezenewspapers.com Captiva and Rockport, Mass, artist Lauri Kaihlanen — well-known on the islands for his images of raccoons, turtles and the like riding bicycles for CROW and SCCF as well as for his more serious works — will have a one-night-only showing of his latest work at the Captiva Civic Association on Thursday, March 2nd, starting at 5:30 p.m. Kahlanen is a second generation Finnish- American (he spoke Finnish in Glouscester growing up) possessing amazing draftsman- ship abilities combined with subtle design After a summer in Massachusetts, techniques. He has a wry sense of humor, Kaihlanen returned to Captiva post-Charley loves exuberant color, and has been drawing in late December of 2004. "Everyone was and painting since childhood. His work is still reeling," he says, "'but it did not seem Artist Lauri Kaihlanen at his Captiva precise and clean — lots of white area... that the wildlife had been too seriously studio shows a new work, "Escape." whimsical but serious — stark, post-Charley affected... the coconut palms still stood, and trees filled with birds and other wildlife on the storm. I did some larger pieces — grounds first; when that is complete, then I had the idea of putting wildlife in a tree so (even a manatee!) attempting to "Escape Up they'd be safe. But the color wouldn't come, black and white and color to provide a sense a Tree," as one piece is called. the figures appear. They may be dreamy, of the damage as well as a positive look at gray, winter trees or dreamy gray winter just wouldn't come — it was just too soon A gallery owner for 25 years, much of after. So I did it in black and white at first the future — and I sold about 52 paintings trees with a vibrant red cardinal just visible while I was here. Considering I expected that time on Bearskin Neck, Rockport his on one branch. Or one might be a "Mystery and waited 'til fall to do it in color. And I work has moved from representational had no idea what I would do last year when nothing, that's pretty good!" Tree" — multi-colored as though the This year he came down, left, and got through abstract fantasy to representational branches were being bathed in the light from I came back..." But the wildlife did survive, subjects floating on abstract backgrounds. a prism. the large birds especially. "I sort of kept that ARTIST, see page 16 He usually conceives and does his back- good sign in mind and put a positive twist Xji.mr Xi>\{ to th home Osi!«.twi>rj! j.*«if •f»!ir -^> Entertainment nightly in the Piano Bar & Lounge, Dolce NottC •r;>l you dine in the trendy cosmopolitan atmosphiere. mot? 1244 Periwinkle Way • Sanibel Island • 472.5555 www.DolceVitaOfSanibel.com BiViMBM CASUAL FPIEOWmG- •> ;•»*: i r.* ••• '.•!«>••-»/* \f\i*i 4 U Week of February 24 - March 2, 2006 ISLANDER Dave Capttva TMMUCHI Horton Lee The Islands' Community 51*1 Horton Newspaper since 1961 Mailing address: P.O. Box 56 • Sanibel. FL 33957 Phone: (239)472-51X5 Fax: t 239)472-1372 [email protected] IPONTCARfc HOW IT GOT www.breezenewspapers.com »N YOU* BXTHWB MAAM, BUT IY$ Sim *N ENDANGERED Location: species wwctf MEANS YOU Promenade Center ARE NOW IE6AUY 695 Tarpon Bay Road. Unit #13 TO MAKE IT COMfOKTA&Ll ^ ITS CUOSm HABITAT Group Publisher Robin Calabrese General Manager Terri Blackmore Executive Editor Renny Severance Staff Writers Laura Nickerson Jenny Burnham Account Execs Rich Martin Marguerite Burns Production Mgr. Joy Simpkins Postal Information: The Sanibel Captiva Islander is published every Friday and is distributed throughout Sanibel and Capliva Islands by Ihe Breeze Corp.