Pic of the day: Aurora over Norway

[Donna]

 Auroras can make spectacular sights. Photographed above last weekend, flowing multi-colored auroras helped illuminate a busy sky above Tromsø, Norway. Besides the spectacular aurora pictured above, the photographer caught three satellites streaks, one airplane streak, and a friend trying to capture the same sight. Although auroras might first appear to be moonlit clouds, they only add light to the sky and do not block background stars from view. Called northern lights in the northern hemisphere, auroras are caused by collisions between charged particles from the magnetosphere and air molecules high in the Earth's atmosphere. If viewed from space, auroras can be seen to glow in X-ray and ultraviolet light as well. Predictable auroras might occur a few days after a powerful magnetic event has been seen on the Sun.

From Sept 15: Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus

[Bobbie Ireland]

Oh my! What an image! Mother Nature sure is an amazing lady. (As long as we remember it's not a good idea to mess with her...)

[valhalla]

I had hoped that Rich's sister would get some Aurora pics in July.  Sadly, lots of rain 

[MAK]

    These are amazing pics Donna! I love the one with the birds in it.   

[Annette]

Amazing pictures! 

[dbishop]

From Astronomy Picture of the day.   I visit this site daily.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
(with tons of mirror sites).

Occasionally they link to my supernova web page at:
http://www.RochesterAstronomy.org/supernova.html
and I wind up getting millions of hits...

[Bird Crazy]

awesome