Paul's Atmospheric images

Atmospheric Images

All images are copyright Paul Money unless otherwise noted.

I hope you enjoy looking at them and perhaps may think to have a go yourselves.
All these images were originally taken on slide film and have been scanned where they have undergone slight brightness/contrast enhancement so they show better on these pages.
Click on the thumbnail for the one you wish to explore.

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Aurora	Noctilucent Clouds
Sun Effects	Lunar Effects

Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights)
For more Northern Lights images see the Omega Holidays Northern Lights flights I help with and the images I have taken on them from this link.

A funny thing happened on the way.....home on the night of October 18th 1984. As I was travelling due North I realised that what lay ahead was not skyglow from the nearby town of Horncastle but (up to that point) the best Aurora I had been lucky enough to view. Fortunately I had my camera equipment with me and managed to find a quiet lane to park up & grab a few pics. As the camera did not move & I was nearly out of film I dashed these three images off with approx 1 minute between each. I had just missed the brightest phase whilst trying to find somewhere to park and the Aurora quickly subsided but it was a memorable event. The highlight of the images is that they show the breakup of the main 'Yellow/Green' Auroral arc over those three minutes and it is only now with digital scanning that I could put them together to recreate what I saw. Note that I have had to enhance & line up the images to get a smooth transition from one to the other but I am pleased with the result as I hope you are at looking at the animation. Now click on the image to see the animation and enjoy!	The Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights) as seen in March 1991 from my parents home. The image was taken using 100 ISO film & approx. 60 seconds at F2.8 with a 28 mm lens. This Aurora was one of the best I had seen up to that time!
The following images were taken during the late evening of April 6th 2000 after watching a wonderful conjunction of the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars.
Red rays close to Ursa Major late evening April 6th	WOW - the Aurora at approx. 23:58 BST April 6th seemingly above our house! 28 mm F4 lens & 100 ISO slide film and about 50 seconds exposure.
The Aurora above our road in Horncastle.

Noctilucent Clouds

Noctilucent Clouds as seen from my Parents home July 1990. Enlargement from the original image which was taken using a 28 mm F2.8 lens & just 30 seconds on 100 ISO slide film. Since then I have seen several really good displays - but not all of them were photographed!

A recent example taken using a Canon 300D DSLR, 15 seconds at F3,5 ISO equivalent of 200. Night of July 14th 2006 at 23:24 - 23:28 BST. This a panorama made up of three images put together showing the Noctilucent Cloud above the houses.

Lunar Haloes and Moon Dogs

On the evening/night of the Lunar eclipse of January 9th 2001 Barry Cane and I noticed this view of the Lunar equivalent of a Sun Dog over to the left of the Moon. This would be approx. 1/2 hour before the eclipse started so about 18:15(ish) GMT. This is the best I have seen of this unusual effect and the photo does not really do the actual view justice as it changed quite quickly as I rushed to get my camera. 50mm lens, F4 and approx. 10 seconds on 100 ISO slide film. The overexposed moon is on the right with the MoonDog the bright patch of haze just to the left of the triangular bush and two lens flares to its left with a faint ghost image of the moon next to the larger of the ring lens flares.	August 1st 2001 at approx. 22:20 BST Barry alerted Lorraine & myself to this great view of a Moon Dog with Mars the bright star to the lower right. This view was taken with a 135mm lens at F2.8 and 200 ISO slide film for about 10 seconds. However i had mislaid my cable release so I had to keep the camera & tripod as steady as possible whilst holding the button down manually whilst taking the picture. This image was the best of the original 4 that I took as the others were too badly trailed. Note the rainbow effect due to the patch of light cloud that produced the Moon Dog. The Moon itself is off to the left of the image behind our tree.
This image has been one of my favourites for many years due to the variety of things happenning within it. As usual I have virtually no notes of about this time in my observing but having now done some detective work using Graystel S/W and Redshift 4 I have been able to place the date & approx time to February 22nd at between 18:00 and 18:15 GMT which works well with the approx. visibility of a satellite passing over and the fact I remember it wasn't too long after tea-time! It shows the track of a Satellite (one of the Soviet Salyut Space Stations?) passing through the constellation of Gemini. I saw it initially with the naked eye and ran indoors to get my trusty Zenith camera & tripod. The image I thought I was taking concerned just the satellite & the constellation as, through the viewfinder, I did not think I had included the nearby Gibbous Moon. However when I developed the film I was somewhat amazed to find that the really faint Lunar Halo I could barely see with the naked eye was wonderfully clear, the Moon was just in the image at upper right (the old Zenith was not a TTL camera), the satellite was trailed through Gemini as expected but there was also several lens effects (due to the overexposed Moon) on the left of the image which I personally think adds drama to the picture. See what you think of it. Exposure details were 400 ISO slide film, F2, Exposure of about 40 seconds.
A Full Lunar Halo imaged on January 2nd 2007 at 7pm using the Canon 300D on manual with the 18mm lens F3.5 and a 10 second exposure on ISO 400. This was taken from the back yard and although it gradually changed over the next few minutes and then gradually faded it wa squite a clear view.

Webmaster ã Paul L Money 2007