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Credit & Copyright: Hallgrimur P. Helgason;
Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt
Explanation:
All of the other aurora watchers had gone home.
By 3:30 am in
Iceland,
on a quiet September night, much of that night's auroras had died down.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting
up the
Earth's atmosphere once again.
This time, surprisingly,
pareidoliacally,
the night lit up with an
amazing
shape reminiscent of a giant
phoenix.
With camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken,
followed immediately by a third of the land.
The mountain in the background is
Helgafell,
while the small foreground river is called Kaldö,
both located about 30 kilometers north of Iceland's capital
Reykjavök.
Seasoned skywatchers
will note that just above the mountain, toward the left, is the
constellation of Orion, while the
Pleiades
star cluster is
also visible just above the frame center.
The 2016 aurora,
which lasted only a minute and was soon gone forever --
would possibly be dismissed as an
fanciful fable -- were it not
captured in the
featured,
digitally-composed, image mosaic.
Almost Hyperspace:
Random APOD Generator
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: aurora borealis
Publications with words: aurora borealis
See also: