The night sky isn’t a dark and empty place. At night the stars come alive and the northern lights ignite the sky in a kaleidoscope of colours. Noctilucent clouds emerge as the aurora borealis is taken over by the Midnight Sun and throughout the year the sun and moon eclipse each other in a never ending cycle.
Photography of the night sky is a rewarding adventure. Learning to use your camera in the dark, sometimes exposed to the cold it is a time to find out how much you really do know about the buttons and controls.
The night sky presents more than just stars. Lunar and solar eclipses take place in a rolling cycle across the planet. Their paths moving over the landscape in an endless shadow of light. Solar eclipses take the daylight from the day making birds go quiet and the feel of dusk appear from nowhere. In contrast the lunar eclipse is more of a waiting game, watching the moon slowly disappear before turning a deep red as the light of the sun is reflected in a surreal moment.
Noctilucent clouds appear at higher latitudes in the summer months when the Midnight Sun is about. These high clouds appear as the setting and rising sun is reflected through ice particles high in the earth’s atmosphere. They are mesmerising in their movements as they swirl and undulate across the night sky.
Finally, the Northern Lights. Energy from the sun crashing into the earth’s atmosphere making the particles glow and dance in the winter night sky. From a gentle arc through to explosive coronas these elusive and ever changing lights can be seen in the winter months across the skies of the Northern Hemisphere.
