Glancing from the window early on Thursday morning (00:48 BST) I was confronted with a beautiful, and equally mind bending atmospheric display as noctilucent clouds streaked there way across the northern sky. These elusive clouds, which consist of water ice crystals some 0.1 micron in diameter, are found in a tenuous atmospheric layer known as the mesosphere. Illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon, which is scattered by the ice crystals, they become visible; appearing to glow with a ghostly pale blue colour.

It was a truly mesmerizing sight that almost begged belief. I feel very lucky to have finally observed, and photographed these ‘wraith’ clouds. Hopefully the next few months will yield similar if not better conditions!

Noctilucent clouds sweep across the constellations of Auriga, and Perseus. Capella can be seen shining brightly towards the lower left hand corner, while Mirphak, and Delta Persei can be seen in the upper right hand corner.

The constellation Auriga disappears behind a rippling swathe of vivid Type 5 IIIb NCLs, while the outer arm of a large cumulus cloud begins to drift over the sky.

The incredible, and intricate detail in the wave like structure of these ethereal clouds can be seen here as they outshine the bright star Capella.

A firey red Sun casts it’s light on to a large cumulus cloud as it drifts over the roof tops. At the same time some fainter NCLs spread their glowing arms across the sky leading to a very surreal scene.

Tags: Auriga, Capella, DSLR, Mirphak, Noctilucent Clouds, Perseus

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 20th, 2009 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Astrophotography, Observing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.