Noctilucent Clouds

If you ever find yourself at a location between 50 and 60 degrees latitude around the time of the summer solstice, be sure to look to the sunward horizon an hour or two after sunset and you may get a glimpse of some noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are a mysterious upper atmospheric phenomenon that even scientists do not yet fully understand.  There is some evidence that they are made up of small particles from meteors. The name literally means "night shining" because they are only viewed in deep twilight, well after the sun is below the horizon. These clouds are very high in the atmosphere, around 55 miles, and they will appear as very delicate pearly-white or bluish strands, not to be confused with cirrus clouds.     During a fishing trip to Norse Lake in NW Ontario, Canada in June/2000, I was very lucky to get these photos of the noctilucent clouds, although they were somewhat obscurred by lower tropospheric clouds.  My regret is that I didn't have 100 speed film loaded in the camera, the resolution would have been much better.  You will notice in the bottom photo the green-colored aurora starting to come through above the clouds.  Please take a very close look at the delicate ribbing or waving patterns between the long strands, very evident in the first photo on the left side and in the middle of the bottom photo, a very interesting structural characteristic of noctilucent clouds.  For more info on this beautiful but mysterious phenomena, please check out the Noctilucent Cloud Observer's Homepage.

Location:  Norse Lake, Ontario, Canada Date:  June 28, 2000 Time:  11:00 pm CDT Camera:  Minolta SR-T101 Lens:  Phoenix 28-80mm telephoto @ 28mm Aperture:  3.5 Film:  Fuji Super HG 1600 color neg Exposure:  10-15 secs Condtions:  clear, 65 F.

click on either photo for a large version (best viewed at 1024X768 resolution)

beautiful NLC photos by Tom Eklund from Finland

more "NLC's with aurora" photos by Timo Leponiemi from Finland

www.nightskyevents.com