2009 Noctilucent Cloud Season

[martinastro]

Hi Tyler, sorry to hear about the bust chase in the heavily capped enviorment, I hate caps, they really kill the day. Did you get any images of the convection?. I see Mike H has caught NLCs last night, he's mentioned both of our names on his website which was very nice of him. I don't know if there has ever been NLCs from Nebraska before but I suspected this season would produce a display and I'm delighted to see they have finally made it that far south , shows what a special season this is. Keep an eye out tonight, I have been clouded out for the last two nights but hoping for clear spells tonight to see the shuttle transit and more NLCs. Good luck.

[rjgjr]

With the sighting of NLC's in Northern Oregon on Monday evening, I was bound and determined to see something Tuesday night, even though I am 250 miles SW of the others. I had all but given up at about 22:07 PDT when I said the heck with it and took a couple of 30 second exposures and called it an evening. When I downloded my batch this morning I was very surprised to see that I indeed did capture some NLC's, unfortunately mostly behind trees. But I did capture them @ 42 degrees latitude. I will definitely be out at a different treeless location tonight weather permitting.

Original image



Very heavily cropped

[Tyler]

Great work Richard!! I was out watching too, but there were some clouds in my way from a spectacular display visible from where I was unfortunately I left to early to see them. I'll be out tonight as well, probably going to a dark sky location. Good Luck to everyone tonight and bring on the best display of the year tonight!

[martinastro]

Excellent stuff Richard, I can the NLCs no problem at all, very well defined and a great image. Congrats to all the US photographers for catching NLCs from so far south!. Keep watching...

[John9929]

Well done Richard, I knew some of you guys would hit the jackpot some of these nights. My body clock last night said have an early night but my instincts said stay up a while, so I went for a drive looking for sites! Boy am I glad I did, I was treated to this beautiful display before dawn which "almost" outshone Venus. This made up for what I couldn't see earlier. Venus Mars and the Pleiades are there also.

[martinastro]

Clouds have just parted here before dawn. NLC display visible 25 degrees high and of type 4 brightness. Heads up to the US readers for later...maybe.

[John9929]

Nice short lived display here before midnight (19/20) which lasted for about an hour or so over in the NE. Thanks Jonathan for the heads-up. Got a few images here's one of them.

[brianb]

... followed by an ASTOUNDING display in the dawn twilight, probably at its best about 0345 BST when it filled well over half of the sky, with a sharp edge parallel with the NW horizon at 45 degree elevation below which the cloud was absent - there was a bright patch in the south east at 25 degrees elevation, very bright ripples & glow in the north east passing right over the zenith fading gradually into "normal twilight" high in the south west. Didn't pay much attention till after 0330 as I was trying to observe Jupiter; I didn't bother trying to image the NLC as it would have been impossible to do it justice without a 180 degree fisheye camera.

[martinastro]

What an awesome show!! especially when the crescent moon and venus where embedded within...amazing!!!

[markt]

Great pictures and reports there guys!  I missed the early morning didplay today as I was in the land of nod, seems it has been widely observed though.  I think I may have to go and observe the sun now to make up for missing Jupiter and the NLC 

[John9929]

I saw and imaged the dawn show Brian it was amazing, I even tried a couple of simi-fisheye shots and it covered the whole sky reaching well over into the south. Even with the lens on 18mm I could only get some of it in. I had a good idea it would come back again before dawn so was waiting for it Will post an image or two later. I also saw a nice volcanic sunrise just before the sun rose it was very striking.

[John9929]

A few from this morning's display. Very hard to pick from over 60 images, hope you like.

[martinastro]

A few from last night...

[martinastro]

Here's a video clip...

[rjgjr]

Very nice images all. Beautiful with the crescent moon and Venus against the background NCL's. Thanks