Airglow Ripples
Taken by Aaron Watson on February 26, 2025 @
West Elk Mountains, Colorado
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Camera Used: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D750
Exposure Time: 20/1
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 3200
Date Taken: 2025:02:26 10:31:05
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Details:
More photos from the airglow outbreak last night. The first photo is looking north at 11:25 pm MT on Feb 25, 2025 (6:25 UTC Feb 26). The ripples were prominent in brightness and visible to the unaided eye as alternating strips of bright and dark. A 20s exposure at iso3200, f2.8 revealed the green glow. The ripple wave fronts were moving from north to south (as seen in the previous GIF upload earlier today). It appears very faintly that there is a secondary set of wave fronts perpendicular to the dark bands. This perpendicular cross-hatch pattern is apparent especially on the right (east) side of the photo.
The second photo is a panorama looking south at 1:00 am MT (8:00 UTC) on Feb 26, 2025. The ripples had finished propagating from north to south and appeared to accumulate or pile up in the south as seen by a brighter visual appearance to the unaided eye and deeper green color in the photo.
To the unaided eye, the airglow resembled high clouds and had a whitish appearance that looked kind of bright. I may not have even noticed if not for the strong dark bands. At first I thought the dark bands were clouds, but after looking closely, I could tell that the background stars showed up most clearly in the dark patches, so they were actually clear patches of sky rather than clouds. It was very interesting and exciting to behold the waves passing by overhead. It was a noticeable pulse of energy.
Photographer's website:
https://www.skies-alive.com/
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