Seems identical to the gladulosum when not in bloom, but now the color makes all the difference. Just like the gladulosum this one can form dense groups that are simply astonishing when in bloom. During flowering all kinds of insects are visiting, and sometimes an odd humanoid like me just sighs in awe and gratefulness! [...]
First night of August and the first noctilucent clouds of the summer – at least the first good ones! There have been some fine veils and wisps in between the clouds, but nothing close to this display. I also made a time-lapse video – see it in this post
Despite a very cold winter, there has been no nacreous clouds this winter. This is the only display that’s coming close. Alas, it’s not nacreous. The sun is down, they shine brightly, they are stationary, but are simply a bleak indication of true nacreous clouds. Last time was in 2008 and the extent and variety [...]
The view from the camp site, or “hotel”, atop Roraima was awesome. I was well protected from the elements in the cave, and could watch nature in all it’s ways and never get wet or cold. The “entertainment” was spectacular this evening. Several cumulunimbus clouds produced lightning for what seemed forever. The altitude made the [...]
This was the end of the first day of a week long trek to the top of Roraima, the highest (2723 m) table mountain (Tepui) in Venezuela, and what a start! The dry season should have started long ago, instead countless thunderstorms supplied plenty of rainshowers and this particular cumulunimbus cloud pushed a layer of [...]
Tonight’s Noctilucent cloud show was fast moving, bright and spectacular. Watching it is one thing, but a time-lapse of many hundreds of exposures is a totally different matter. By playing back as a movie you can see how the ripples and waves are moving, as well as how the NLCs are moving in a totally [...]
After more than a week of cloud cover, tonight started with a very bright and widespread display of NLCs. It was far south on the sky and ranged all the way to the northwest/northeast. Only a few times have I seen NLCs go further south than zenith. As the sky was clear I assumed it [...]
Finally a strong display of NLCs! After a heavy thunderstorm the clouds slowly dissipated and revealed NLCs. They were mostly ripples this time – like sand in the shallow seas or the sand dunes of a desert. NLCs are really great on photo, but simply awesome as a time-lapse.
First decent display of the season, but as it’s very close to the solstice the sky is very bright throughout the night and thus the NLCs are not as prominent as could be later in the summer. [quicktime]http://www.ross.no/communicate/wp-content/2009/06/DSC_0762.MOV[/quicktime]