Astronomy, Photography and Weather
March 28, 2024, 09:22:23 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: IAA lecture programme continues alternate Wednesdays from September - an excellent programme of lectures- Queens University Belfast - Bell Lecture Theatre. Also keep an eye out for the Summer Events
 
  Home Help Search Gallery Staff List Login Register  

Light pillars (Jan.07)

Pages: [1] 2
  Print  
Author Topic: Light pillars (Jan.07)  (Read 1109 times)
Roman White
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1479


Poltava, Ukraine


View Profile WWW
« on: January 07, 2009, 02:16:13 am »

After an observing session at 02:45EET I went home but forgot to take an eyepiece so returned outside... and that was certainly a luck!.. I accidently witnessed light pillars above the S horizon (source was 2 railroad lights 1.5km away).
I have never seen this phenomena so distinctly visible and never photographed them before  Smiley
The sky was full of haze and possibly Cirrostratus


P.S. I have just watched Spaceweather flash and I see that I'm not alone with my 'pillars'. Adam Tornasz from Staszów, Poland captures some light pillars tonight with the same weather conditions. http://spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Tomasz-Adam-s1_1231285153_fl.jpg
« Last Edit: January 07, 2009, 02:18:41 am by Roman White » Report Spam   Logged

SkyWatcher 130/900mm EQ3, Bresser 76/700mm, 20x90 bino. and other, Olympus SP-550UZ
Eclipse & comet chaser, occultation & meteor observer
Poltava Astronomy Portal

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

rjgjr
Guest
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2009, 02:35:12 am »

Beautiful capture Roman! Very interesting.
Report Spam   Logged
Roman White
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1479


Poltava, Ukraine


View Profile WWW
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2009, 03:12:40 am »

Thanks Richard

P.S. I was outside at 05:40-06:00 EET. The number of light pillars that I have seen is over 30 and the quality... just amazing! Cheesy I have many photos and fantastic impressions of seeing that phenomena. The first shot is a rubbish comparative to those. I will post it here in the afternoon.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2009, 04:22:18 am by Roman White » Report Spam   Logged

SkyWatcher 130/900mm EQ3, Bresser 76/700mm, 20x90 bino. and other, Olympus SP-550UZ
Eclipse & comet chaser, occultation & meteor observer
Poltava Astronomy Portal
Tyler
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 493


Lincoln, Nebraska/Waconia, Minnesota, USA


View Profile WWW
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2009, 04:33:13 am »

Really cool Roman I have never witnessed these! - submit them to spaceweather
Report Spam   Logged

brianb
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1228



View Profile
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2009, 08:39:24 am »

Quote
light pillars above the S horizon (source was 2 railroad lights 1.5km away).
WTF?

Complain about these, they're wasting energy & not illuminating anything to do with the railroad .... unless your railway company has gone into the space business. They are contributing sky glow even if it's not usually as obvious as this.
Report Spam   Logged
John9929
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1105


Maghaberry, N.Ireland.


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2009, 01:48:25 pm »

Great reports Roman, and well done catching those pillars.
Report Spam   Logged

John9929.
Roman White
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1479


Poltava, Ukraine


View Profile WWW
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2009, 02:23:31 pm »

Thanks Tyler and John

Quote
(source was 2 railroad lights 1.5km away).
Complain about these, they're wasting energy & not illuminating anything to do with the railroad .... unless your railway company has gone into the space business. They are contributing sky glow even if it's not usually as obvious as this.
Of course they're wasting energy - the most of that light is shining into the sky, as result they shine like a 1/2 Moon. Several years ago there were only two lights (directly there where I wrote above). But recently they switched on a few more in the same area 1.5km south of me and several lights ~1km east of me, so the light pollution increased greatly. The southern horizon (as on the photo) is the worst with light pollution.
Report Spam   Logged

SkyWatcher 130/900mm EQ3, Bresser 76/700mm, 20x90 bino. and other, Olympus SP-550UZ
Eclipse & comet chaser, occultation & meteor observer
Poltava Astronomy Portal
JohnC
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1631

Gloucester : UK


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2009, 02:31:37 pm »

It's no good Roman, with all that ever increasing light pollution you'll have to move home..  Well spotted though.  Smiley
Report Spam   Logged
Roman White
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1479


Poltava, Ukraine


View Profile WWW
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2009, 03:27:41 pm »

It's no good Roman, with all that ever increasing light pollution you'll have to move home..  Well spotted though.  Smiley
The decision is to drive some 30-40 km away from the city and observe in a rural area under better skies. But if I'd want to see really dark skies (black and grey areas in LP map) I will need to move for at least 700km away (there are still some unpolluted areas in S Ukraine e.g. Kerch peninsula). So the situation is bad indeed, it goes a bit better only when the sky is clear with no clouds/haze and the air is dry.

Below are the shots which I captured today at 6AM (only some best of them)
I saw a first extremely bright light pillar through the window, and when I went outside with a camera 2-3 minutes later, it had already disappeared. But the amount of freezing fog increased and very soon the light pillars started to form above the every street light in the neighbourhood. It was so exciting!  Smiley
I tried to capture two gentle green and very long light pillars (they looked similar to the first shot) but they disappeared while I set the 12sec timer.
The situation changed so rapidly that during the 15sec exposure they could appear and disappear 2 or even 3 times in different directions.
The most exciting pillars reached 30o altitude and were very bright.









« Last Edit: January 07, 2009, 03:35:09 pm by Roman White » Report Spam   Logged

SkyWatcher 130/900mm EQ3, Bresser 76/700mm, 20x90 bino. and other, Olympus SP-550UZ
Eclipse & comet chaser, occultation & meteor observer
Poltava Astronomy Portal
martinastro
Martin Mc Kenna
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5182


Maghera, N. Ireland


View Profile WWW
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2009, 04:21:33 pm »

Roman, those are fantastic!. I enjoyed reading through your reports and studying the images of those rare light pillars. Your early morning observing paid off with such a prize catch!. I have always wanted to see this atmospheric phenomena for myself but have only got much lesser examples. You will have me out looking for them now.

Thanks for sharing those unusual images!  Smiley
Report Spam   Logged

Roman White
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1479


Poltava, Ukraine


View Profile WWW
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2009, 07:34:48 pm »

Thanks Martin.  Smiley
IMHO you will need to have severe frost and a nice amount of fog to see those...
Report Spam   Logged

SkyWatcher 130/900mm EQ3, Bresser 76/700mm, 20x90 bino. and other, Olympus SP-550UZ
Eclipse & comet chaser, occultation & meteor observer
Poltava Astronomy Portal
brianb
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1228



View Profile
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2009, 09:11:11 pm »

Quote
you will need to have severe frost and a nice amount of fog to see those...
I have a feeling the fog alone might be enough.
Report Spam   Logged
martinastro
Martin Mc Kenna
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5182


Maghera, N. Ireland


View Profile WWW
« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2009, 09:17:22 pm »

Ive had that the last few nights, or is it weeks?..it seems to be like that every day here but I haven't seen any pillars yet. Having said that I wasn't looking for them so I could very well have missed any which did form. You have made me more observant now  Smiley

There was incredible fog here all last night. The view from the country was awesome like a wall all around. I was hoping to get my very first images of a lunar fog bow but the fog was so dense that the Moon just looked like a white blur. Will try again tonight.  Smiley
Report Spam   Logged

Roman White
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1479


Poltava, Ukraine


View Profile WWW
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2009, 09:33:10 pm »

I'm almost sure that the ice crystals are needed to form these phenomena.

I observe the light pillars very and very rare, but I saw many images from other people - and all of them were from northern countries e.g. Alaska, Finland, Russia
Or how can you explain that on the single night when the -20's spread widely from Russia to Poland (and maybe even Germany), two reports followed - one from me, another from Poland (I wrote above)
« Last Edit: January 08, 2009, 09:34:49 pm by Roman White » Report Spam   Logged

SkyWatcher 130/900mm EQ3, Bresser 76/700mm, 20x90 bino. and other, Olympus SP-550UZ
Eclipse & comet chaser, occultation & meteor observer
Poltava Astronomy Portal
martinastro
Martin Mc Kenna
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5182


Maghera, N. Ireland


View Profile WWW
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2009, 04:31:22 pm »

Roman, congrats on getting your light pillar images on the Spaceweather sightings gallery  Wink
Report Spam   Logged



Pages: [1] 2
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum

Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy