2009 Noctilucent Cloud Season

[Roman White]

The results of summer solstice are 7 displays in 5 days! Great activity!  

I am a bit late with my report, will continue now...

June 20/21, 21:50-23:15 EEST
AZI 320-025, max alt. 10^o,
brightness 2-3 (max 3,5), types: I, IIab, IIIb, IVa, S, O

22:13


22:27


22:43


June 20/21, 02:25-03:50 EEST
AZI 340-130, max alt. 100^o,
brightness max 2, types: I, IIa, IIIab, IVab, P

02:58


03:07


03:08

[rjgjr]

I'll keep watching and keep my fingers crossed! Great shots Roman.

[Roman White]

June 21/22, 21:45-23:05 EEST
AZI 240-030, max alt. 85^o,
brightness max 4, types: I, IIab, IIIab, IVa, V, O

21:52


22:02


22:14


June 21/22, 02:55-03:30 (yahoo! I've got NLC on my birthday) 
AZI 345-050, max alt. 25^o,
brightness 1, types: IIa, IIIa

03:17

[Roman White]

Thanks Richard.

No NLC seen from here since Jun.22 evening, although the sky is mostly clear.

[martinastro]

Those are very good Roman, especially the mag and structure in the first set with nice range of colours also. You have been getting alot of displays in your area recently. 

Not looking good here tonight, very hazy with building cloud at mid levels which have the first hint of instability in them.

[martinastro]

NLCs being reported from the UK tonight.

Cloudy here.

[lightlord]

Straight from the netherlands 26-06-2009 at 0:03 the show began here are the results

[brianb]

Here there is a lot of tropospheric cloud & thick haze, can see Vega, Arcturus & Altair but not much else. The cirrus element is still lighter than the sky background. In the north there is a glow suggestive of a bright NLC display, though the haze is robbing the fine detail & altering the colour, so I'm not sure there really is anything going on. Temperature +16C at midnight .... sky too poor to observe, air to hot to sleep ....

[brianb]

Well it was a very very poor night for observing, but a very good night for NLC. Some interference from tropospheric cloud (altostratus) and a lot of interference from haze but there was an extensive, complex and very bright NLC display which got better & better as the night wore on. By 0250 BST it stretched from NW to E and reached halfway to the zenith, with very well marked waves on a larger scale than usual. The electric blue colour faded gradually towards pale yellowish close to the horizon, almost certainly an effect of the haze.

10 frame animation here: http://www.bbhvig.uklinux.net/NLC-090626.gif
900 kilobytes but worth the effort of downloading, I think. 17mm lens pointing NNE, all exposures 2.5 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400.
First frame at 0206 BST, frame interval 5 mins.

Immediately after the last frame I zoomed in to 70mm and (with the same exposure settings) took a closeup of the brightest part of the display

The star centre bottom is Capella, the only star visible in that direction.

[John9929]

Yeah Brian, that was the best I've seen this year so far. I had already come home from an earlier session and noticed the bands from the back door and  enter session No 2, this time from the middle of a hay field! Those bright bands were amazing and seemed to cast shadows, they were something the same as the ones I seen last year and they were early morning as well. Lost track of the images I took, but will post a couple tomorrow (later today!). Look forward to seeing your timelapse.

[rjgjr]

Great shots Lightlord and Brian, that closeup is a real winner!

[markt]

I've not been on here for a day or so, and all I can say is WOW!    Several pages of delightfull images and reports!     Really good to read through 

[Paul]

An excellent display last night, initially marred by much lower cloud, but eventually the display shone through and lasted until dawn....

[martinastro]

Those are great images and vids guys. Brian, you caught that lovely blue structure extremely well!

I had serious trouble with trop cloud and murk last night although I could see the uppermost part of the display around 00.30 and it was an easy type 4 brightness. Before dawn I was hampered by thick murk, so much so that no stars were visible in the sky, however the NLCs were visible through it all which was amazing, sporting herringbone structure across much of the entire sky. It looked like a stunning display, and one of the finest of the season so far, but not the best, I don't agree with that. Just to show the conditions I had to deal with, this is a shot before dawn in that horrible mucky sky. I wish I had it clear for this one.

[John9929]

Great images everyone, here's a few of mine, better late than never! Sorry about the power lines Where I went to the second time I couldn't get parked, and though in the middle of a hay field couldn't get away from them. I already had an encounter with a car load of pests earlier so decided to look for somewhere I could get some peace. Why do some people always stick their nose in where it's not wanted!