Sky at Night Magazine

[mba007]

Hi folks,

I could be wrong, but it's looking like noctilucent clouds are appearing as I write. Just need to sober up a bit (and maybe they'll go away!)

Martin

[wgater]

[sulk begin]

[:(] Not fair there's nothing down here in the Westcountry. Humphh...

[sulk end] [;)]

Will

[col]

I was straight out back to check when i read your post,alas too many houses blocking my horizons on all sides[:(]

col

[mba007]

I've only seen them once before, so there is a real possibility that I'v misidentified them. They appear as subtle light bands in the dusk sky and contrast with the lower darker clouds.

I'm taking a series of images, so when this is over you can be the judge [:)]

Martin

[mba007]

OK. Moment of truth...

An image is at the following link:

http://www.mbandrews.org/nlc/IMG_25pc.jpg


And a movie, from 21:58 to 22:58, made up of individual images (with varying exposures and positions) is at the following link ... be warned, the file is 1.8MB. Camera P&S Canon S3IS.

http://www.mbandrews.org/nlc/NLC_28_07_06_small.divx


It wasn't the greated display tonight, compared to that from last week, but then I'm easily pleased. If this isn't NLC then I need to know!!! Be kind.

Cheers,

Martin

[mba007]

Just a note to say that, in hindsight, and having looked at the images, I'm slightly skeptical that these were NLC. They look nothing like the beautifully structured pictures in the July 2006 SAN magazine, nor like those posted on the spaceweather.com galleries.

However, there is a problem in that at 9:58pm (BST) the Sun was 8 degrees below the horizon, and at 10:58 was 14 degrees below. According to the magazine 'when the Sun reaches 6 degrees below the horizon it will no longer illuminate the lower clouds of the troposphere'. So if it ain't NLC, what is it? Maybe cirrus being illuminated by the light scattered around the atmosphere???

Any thoughts?

Martin

[wgater]

Martin,

I'm not sure about those either. I took a picture of what I thought were NLC but are in fact high level Cirrus (its still on my site I think![:)]). My instinct would say that those are high level Cirrus cloud, they're not like the lovely bright structured picture you posted before are they?

Regards

Will

[les]

HI Martin,
The luminescence of the NLC's is destinctive.The best rule to follow is if your in any doubt their not noctilucent clouds.[8|]
Regards Les.