Astro-Panarama: Aurora on the Farm

By Nancy Atkinson - September 30, 2014 at 11:59 AM UTC | Observing
15366794645_097166f287_z.jpg

Since I grew up on a farm, I know how lovely the night sky can be when you're out in the country. But this new image from

Alan Dyer

is just astounding!

This 180-degree panorama shows an aurora display behind grain bins on a country road in Alberta, Canada. "The aurora adds more color to a sky also filled with

green airglow

," Alan wrote

on Flickr

, "while at the ends of the roads are yellow glows of light pollution, from Strathmore and Calgary at left, and Bassano at right. For a few minutes there was also the sharp edge at left to the aurora rays, present in 3 frames of the panorama, so it is not an artifact of the stitching. The Big Dipper is left of centre, low in the north."

Just gorgeous. Plus, it reminds me of home...

You can click on the image above to see larger versions.

TerrestrialTuesday

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com