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
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I thought I’d share a shot that was originally destined for the recycle bin, but after some tweaking in Photoshop I decided to save this uninspired picture from such a grim fate.
While it’s not the most eye-poping picture ever taken, there is something about it that has grown on me. Perhaps it’s the element of dynamism - the blurred streak of the clouds whisking across the sky as the stars rise. Taken at the start of October, the constellation Auriga can be seen over the eastern horizon right in the centre of the picture. The G class star Capella can also be seen shining brightly in the centre of the frame. It wasn’t a cloud free night as can be seen in the photograph - I was eventually forced to take a brief pause in my session before I could continue shooting again. The picture was taken at ISO 800 using a 30 second exposure with an F/Stop of 4.5 and a focal length of 26mm.
Tags: Auriga, Capella, DSLR, Photoshop
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Another clear sky early on Monday morning offered an opportunity to experiment some more with the Sony a200. After some mild processing I thought I’d post up two of the better images that I managed to take. The first one is a return to the constellations Cygnus, Lyra and Draco. Unlike the Sunday morning image, both Cygnus and Lyra are fully visible. The double star Albireo in Cygnus as well as Vega in Lyra can both be seen floating above the roof tops. Again, if you take a closer look at Cygnus you can see part of the milky way running downwards from Deneb throughout the constellation.
The second image shot, shows the constellation Auriga and Taurus. Capella is clearly visible as is The Pleiades just towards the upper right hand corner of the image. If you look carefully, you can make out some fantastic nebula detail that the camera has picked up. Moving to the bottom right of the image, just above the roof top behind Aldebaran you can also see the Hyades star cluster
Unbelievably the clouds began to move in at around 02:30 UT. It happened so quickly that within ten minutes large parts of the sky were just blanketed in that ubiquitos orange and grey gloom that saw me forced to pack up and call it a night for another time.
Tags: Albireo, Auriga, Capella, Collinder 50, Cygnus, Deneb, Draco, DSLR, Lyra, M45, Taurus, The Hyades, The Pleiades, Vega
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