All of the other aurora watchers had gone home. By 3:30 am in
Iceland, on a quiet September night, much of that night's auroras had died down. Suddenly, unexpectedly, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the
Earth's atmosphere once again. This time, surprisingly,
pareidoliacally, the night lit up with an amazing shape reminiscent of a giant
phoenix. With camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately by a third of the land. The mountain in the background is
Helgafell, while the small foreground river is called Kaldá, both located about 30 kilometers north of Iceland's capital
Reykjavík.
Seasoned skywatchers will note that just above the mountain, toward the left, is the constellation of Orion, while the Pleiades
star cluster is also visible just above the frame center. The 2016
aurora, which lasted only a minute and was soon gone forever -- would possibly be dismissed as a
fanciful fable -- were it not captured in the
featured, digitally-composed, image mosaic.
Evrim Ağacı
