It looks like a passing comet or a giant, luminous amoeba. But this was pure rocket science. The cloud was created by a Black Brant XII sounding rocket launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket released a cloud of electrically-charged aerosols near the top of Earth's atmosphere to investigate the formation of noctilucent clouds or "NLCs." Mysterious NLCs form naturally around Earth's poles during the months of northern summer. On this September evening, researchers decided to see if they could create an artificial NLC at mid-latitudes; it seems to have worked.
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
It looks like a passing comet or a giant, luminous amoeba. But this was pure rocket science. The cloud was created by a Black Brant XII sounding rocket launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket released a cloud of electrically-charged aerosols near the top of Earth's atmosphere to investigate the formation of noctilucent clouds or "NLCs." Mysterious NLCs form naturally around Earth's poles during the months of northern summer. On this September evening, researchers decided to see if they could create an artificial NLC at mid-latitudes; it seems to have worked.
Yikes I forgot to give credit for the photo to John Blackwell of Exeter New Hampshire
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
LAST SUNSET OF SUMMER: Last night in Florida, summer came to an end in a flash of green. "My wife and I drove to Clearwater Beach beach to photograph the sunset," says Don Roberts. "I had never seen a green flash before and was excited to see and shoot a real beauty as my first." He used a Canon 50D to record the moment:
The green flash is a mirage. It occurs when there is warm air immediately over the ocean waters and the air temperature changes rapidly with height. These conditions magnify the usually-subtle prismatic refraction of the low atmosphere into an exuberant explosion of emerald green.
What kind of sunsets will autumn/spring bring? Tonight brings the first; take a look!
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
Its not as impressive as two galaxies merging.. Tonight I am siting on my deck looking at this sight through my light polluted skies.. Tonight...Go out and take a look if skies are clear..
Its not as impressive as two galaxies merging.. Tonight I am siting on my deck looking at this sight through my light polluted skies.. Tonight...Go out and take a look if skies are clear..
We saw that terrifically last night. It's nice that we are well out of the 'burbs. However we did have those really high altitude ice crystals forming, which gave a nice effect including a circular halo of many degrees width. Isn't that due to the witches flying around the Moon though? :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
CELESTIAL TRIANGLE: This morning in Kerman, Iran, Mohammad Javad Fahimi stood beside the historic Jabaliyeh Dome and watched a lovely triangle rise in the eastern sky:
"It was Venus, Saturn and the crescent Moon having a get-together," says Fahimi. Seeing the planets arrayed thus beside the 900-year old mausoleum was "a wonderful way to begin the day."
Hubble Latest Pics
)
Hubble Latest Pics
A little closer to
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A little closer to home...
I think everybody should go outdoors and look up every so often:-)
Noctilucent Clouds
It looks like a passing comet or a giant, luminous amoeba. But this was pure rocket science. The cloud was created by a Black Brant XII sounding rocket launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket released a cloud of electrically-charged aerosols near the top of Earth's atmosphere to investigate the formation of noctilucent clouds or "NLCs." Mysterious NLCs form naturally around Earth's poles during the months of northern summer. On this September evening, researchers decided to see if they could create an artificial NLC at mid-latitudes; it seems to have worked.
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
RE: A little closer to
)
Yikes I forgot to give credit for the photo to John Blackwell of Exeter New Hampshire
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
Last Sunset of Summer in the
)
Last Sunset of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere
Sunset
LAST SUNSET OF SUMMER: Last night in Florida, summer came to an end in a flash of green. "My wife and I drove to Clearwater Beach beach to photograph the sunset," says Don Roberts. "I had never seen a green flash before and was excited to see and shoot a real beauty as my first." He used a Canon 50D to record the moment:
The green flash is a mirage. It occurs when there is warm air immediately over the ocean waters and the air temperature changes rapidly with height. These conditions magnify the usually-subtle prismatic refraction of the low atmosphere into an exuberant explosion of emerald green.
What kind of sunsets will autumn/spring bring? Tonight brings the first; take a look!
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
Just had to include a
)
Just had to include a wonderful sketch of Io's Transit across Jupiter
Transit
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
Well somebody got
)
Well somebody got it..
Azhy Chato Hasan in Iraqi Kurdistan Region - Shamamek Plain - West of Erbil
First Autumn Sunset
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
All amateur astronomers will
)
All amateur astronomers will appreciate these pictures and hoped and wish they had skies like these which most of us have lost..
Reclaiming Dark Skies
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
Its not as impressive as two
)
Its not as impressive as two galaxies merging.. Tonight I am siting on my deck looking at this sight through my light polluted skies.. Tonight...Go out and take a look if skies are clear..
Jupiter and Moon
Tonight when the sun goes down, step outside and look up. You might see something like this:
"The Moon and Jupiter are very close together tonight," says Monika Landy-Gyebnar, who took this picture just hours ago from Veszprém, Hungary. "The beautiful pair of the evening sky twinkled brightly above our town's viaduct, no matter how the streetlights tried to overshine them."
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
RE: Its not as impressive
)
We saw that terrifically last night. It's nice that we are well out of the 'burbs. However we did have those really high altitude ice crystals forming, which gave a nice effect including a circular halo of many degrees width. Isn't that due to the witches flying around the Moon though? :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
CELESTIAL TRIANGLE: This
)
CELESTIAL TRIANGLE: This morning in Kerman, Iran, Mohammad Javad Fahimi stood beside the historic Jabaliyeh Dome and watched a lovely triangle rise in the eastern sky:
"It was Venus, Saturn and the crescent Moon having a get-together," says Fahimi. Seeing the planets arrayed thus beside the 900-year old mausoleum was "a wonderful way to begin the day."
Celestial Triangle
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold