Meteors and Aurorae over Iceland

[pokerfan]

This happened to me once. I got to some remote location to watch the annual Perseid Meteor Shower and the Northern Lights showed up and "ruined" it.





Explanation: What's going on behind that mountain? Quite a bit. First of all, the mountain itself, named Kirkjufell, is quite old and located in western Iceland near the town of Grundarfjörður. In front of the steeply-sloped structure lies a fjord that had just begun to freeze when the above image was taken -- in mid-December of 2012. Although quite faint to the unaided eye, the beautiful colors of background aurorae became quite apparent on the 25-second exposure. What makes this image is of particular note, though, is that it also captures streaks from the Geminids meteor shower -- meteors that might not have been evident were the aurora much brighter. Far in the distance, on the left, is the band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while stars from our local part of the Milky Way appear spread across the background. This weekend the Perseids meteor shower will peak and may well provide sky enthusiasts with their own memorable visual experiences.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130807.html

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. nice, thanks

[marzipanni]

2. Wow! What a light show!

We were able to see the aurora borealis here once, even though at ~latitude 38ºN it's not very far north in California. Some time after the sun set the N/NE sky had a [dark red glow, which was later reported to be a rare sighting here of the northern lights.

I want to go to a place where there is very little, or no, light pollution, just to see the huge numbers of stars and planets.
I'm going to get up at 3:00-4:00 am on the 12th and 13th to watch for Perseid meteors.

[Locut0s]

3. Thanks for this, very nice!...

I've been meaning to try my hand at star trails and the like. Sadly there's too much light pollution here for much else.