It's Noctilucent Cloud Season!

By Nancy Atkinson - June 17, 2010 at 12:34 PM UTC | Planetary Science
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It's summer (well, OK, technically next week it is summer) but it's the time of year that northern latitudes can see the beautiful, awe inspiring atmospheric phenomena called Noctilucent Clouds, or night shining clouds. They aren't like regular cumulus or cirrus clouds, but are mysterious and unique high atmosphere cloud formations thought to be composed of small ice-coated particles. How they form and why is not well understood, and usually the best time to see them is at twilight when the high altitude clouds are backlit by the sun. But Stu Atkinson in England sent in these great images of NLC's, which he took in the wee hours of the morning (he woke up at 1:30 am) from the stunning location of Kendal Castle. He's got more at his website,

Cumbrian Sky.

[caption id="attachment_66602" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="Noctilucent clouds in Lancashire taken by Mark Purvis in 2009."]

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This image was sent in by UT reader Mark Purvis, who wrote, "This is an image I took in Beacon point in Lancashire. It was taken on the 21st July 2009 at 23:30(ish) with an Olympus E-400."

[caption id="attachment_66580" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Another look at Noctilucent clouds over Kendal Castle, England. Credit: Stuart Atkinson"]

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If you have taken some images of NLC's send them to

Nancy

and we'll post them.

For more NLC images, see

Spaceweather.com's gallery.

Here's a link to some NLC pictures (plus a Comet McNaught photo) taken in Germany,

also taken in the early morning hours, about 2:30 am local time.

Check out this link for a NLC FAQ.

And here's some observing tips from

Spaceweather.com

Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the Sun has dipped 6 degrees to 16 degrees below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you may have spotted a noctilucent cloud. High-northern latitudes are favored.

Thanks again to

Stu

for sending us his images.

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