NLCover Deeside

Noctilucent clouds NLC summer northwards Scottish June Royal Deeside sky rare event usually occurring between latitudes 55 and 65 degrees resembling thin cirrus but most often a bluish silvery colour although orange or reddish colours from latent twilight are visible towards the horizon and are a beautiful and eerie sight, the spidery network rather like the mind filaments from Dumbledore's Pensieve in Harry Potter usually of sapphire blue, gossamer white colours from ice crystals catching the last twilight is seen around the time the brightest stars appear and their strength grows around maximum darkness, usually after midnight BST. They happen only a few times a year and need a clear cloudless night best to see them although in this photo the normal clouds are also present. This is taken looking magnetic 280-320 degrees from Crooktree North and Westwards and 25 miles west of Aberdeen in North East Scotland, first show in 2020 in the late evening of the 11th June into early 12th. Taken at 23.10 UT [after midnight in BST] using a D700 Nikon DSLR with a Nikkor 24mm f2.8 at f5.6, ISO 500 for 1sec. It was a perfect night with little wind and very little normal cloud cover. Many examples of NLC from around the world can be seen in the gallery at www.Spaceweather.com.