Posted on 08/09/2014 2:38:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: What shines in the world at night? Just visible to the eye, a rare electric blue glow spread along the shores of Victoria Lake on January 16, 2013. Against reflections of a light near the horizon, this digitally stacked long exposure recorded the bioluminescence of noctiluca scintillans, plankton stimulated by the lapping waves. Above, the night skies of the Gippsland Lakes region, Victoria, Australia shine with a fainter greenish airglow. Oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere, initially excited by ultraviolet sunlight, produce the more widely seen fading atmospheric chemiluminescence. Washed out by the Earth's rotation, the faint band of the southern summer Milky Way stretches from the horizon as star trails circle the South Celestial Pole.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit & Copyright: Phil Hart]
I’ve never seen the sky like that here in the states. It’d be worth the trip to Australia just to see it.
Very cool.
We were in the Alice Springs desert area almost 30 years ago when Halley’s came around ... It was like another world — the sights were breathtaking, so many constellations & objects you can’t see from the northern US. It was weird to watch things rotate the opposite direction in the sky; and strange to see the Big Dipper at the northern horizon pointed in the “wrong” direction ;)
Yeah, I remember my father was on a ship to Korea while he was in the Army in the mid 1950’s. He remembers how bright the stars and Milky Way were over the dark Pacific Ocean. Also, the same thing was said when I talked to an electrician’s mate who was aboard the USS Melvin (a destroyer) in World War II. He told me they had to black out the ship so it would be harder for the Japanese subs to see them at night.
Spectacular!!
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