Noctilucent display

And about time too! πŸ™‚

Yesterday was possibly THE most changeable weather day we’ve had in quite some time; windy, for most of the day, there were sunny, hot spells all day, then in the late afternoon it started to rain, and rain more, then there was a flash, “was that lightning?” then a loud rumble of thunder and it POURED down for around five minutes, a few rumbles, a few flashes and …………. gone! The sun came out and it was roasting, we had to open two doors to get a breeze through the house.

As the evening wore on, I realised it was going to be a clear night so, as we prepared for bed, I prepared a camera and set it up for a midnight start, it’s too light any earlier.

I woke up for a nature call around 01:15 and felt the need to check outside. I opened the curtains where the camera was, gazed groggily at the sky then shuffled back to bed where I promptly got alert-head! “Was that noctilucent clouds?, Yeah but, really? Was it?” So I checked my Glendale Aurora app and sure enough, there were notch reports galore. Up I got, grabbed the other camera and the tripod, a dressing gown, slippers and headed outside.

It was!

Note – all images can be tapped / clicked for a larger view in Flickr

02-02 - Noctilucent display panorama
02:02 AM

That is a three-shot stitched panorama, probably NE to NW ish. Most shots are at 18mm.

It was a pretty damned good display, probably the widest and brightest I’ve seen up here. I got some shots last year and, I just looked back at them, it was the same night, tonight that I got them! Spooky huh?

So, I was standing outside in my dressing gown and slippers, staring in awe and grabbing shots, while the chill breeze wafted around my nethers! It was chilly!

02-05 - Noctilucent display due North
02:05 AM – due North

I even took a video that is pretty noisy, photographically speaking and the focus isn’t great but, it’s a decent record, the idea was to look for movement within the cloud formation. I’ll check later.

02-06 - Noctilucent display over Knock of Formal with the Plough
02:06 – NNW including the Plough

I don’t remember thinking too much about what or how I was capturing but I did get a decent set of shots. I know I was thinking “it’s chuffing freezing out here!!” so I didn’t hang around too long.

I did think I need to zoom in for some closer shots.

02-06 - Noctilucent display zoomed in
02:06 – zoomed to 28mm

There was a decent breeze blowing as I said and I was fiddling with the camera so some shots have movement in them but, I shall leave you with a set of various images before I dived back inside and got snug under the duvet again, after reporting on Glendale App, my go-to for Aurora and Noctilucent alerts.

02-16 - Noctilucent display over Knock of Formal
02:16
02-16 - Noctilucent display full width panorama
02:16 – full width panorama
02-17 - Noctilucent display due North zoomed
02:17 – zoomed to 28mm

And that was that, I’d almost lost my bearings πŸ˜‰

I think it’s due to be cloudy tonight but ………….

Learn more about Noctilucent clouds / BBC Sky at Night

Citizen Science Cloud Watch


7 thoughts on “Noctilucent display

  1. This photographic series is terrific. I always say Fortune Favors the Prepared so it’s great that you were prepared to take those shots no matter what the weather was like; and you definitely woke up at exactly the right time. Thanks for the Post. Very impressive.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.