Starship Asterisk*

A Luminous Night

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.

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As a biologist, genus names take a capital letter, so Noctiluca scintillans. Should also be italicised, so Noctiluca scintillans. Apart from that - great photograph!

This photo brings back memories from 1972. I and a bunch of kid were out rowing off the coast of Göteborg. It was a warm night in August, it was dark but the Moon was shining, and whenever the oars were dipped in the water there was an absolute riot of sparkling lights. We jumped into the water and swam in the glittering water, and sparkling lights were streaming off our wet bodies.

Thanks for the memories!

Ann

I would love to watch the starry sky together with my future soulmate!

Not only is green airglow visible, but also red. While green seems to be the most common oxygen emmision, and is often visible to the naked eye when banded, the red appears only in time-exposure photography. I once imaged all-sky red airglow that showed very brightly in the photos, and even thought it was banded, was conpletely invisible to the naked eye - and this from a VERY dark rural location.

Interesting...

:---[===] *

Also there hasn't been an image of a planetary nebula for a while.

starsurfer wrote:Also there hasn't been an image of a planetary nebula for a while.

Don't fret.

geckzilla wrote:

starsurfer wrote:Also there hasn't been an image of a planetary nebula for a while.

Don't fret.

Moi fret? You seem to have me confused with someone else!
Thankfully I can get my PN fix from any particular galleries and also recent scientific papers!
They make me so happy!
In fact I think I could hug you!