h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Over the years I've been fascinated by various natural optical phenomena that can be seen. Sundogs and halos, parhelic arcs and circumzenithal arcs have been seen over the years (the last of those is great by the way, looking like an upside down rainbow grinning at the top of the sky). Of course manyh rainbows have been seen. Single, double, partial and the last one looked like it was going down into the valley we were driving into. Moon halos are harder to see in that you need a dark sky and bright moon as well as the right conditions for halo formation.

I've managed to see aurorae from home, nothing spectacular but certainly green glowing in the sky where normally there isn't any.

Once thing I've not seen for certain is Noctilucent Clouds. Not till last night anyway. Over the years during the summer months if I've woken in the night then I'll have looked out of the window at the back towards the north to see if any were there. Often I did think I could see something but was never sure if what I was looking at was noctilucent clouds or just a slightly woozey addled brain making up what I wanted to see when I'd just woken up.

Overnight I woke up again and after dealing with what needed dealing with I thought tonight would be a good night for looking out to see noctilucent clouds. The night had started quite still and very clear and would have been great for stargazing had it not been just after midsummer. At about 2 in the morning though the sky had gone as dark as it could get. I stepped out into the garden and looked towards the north and northeast. There for a few degrees above the horizon was a blueish, whitish glow. Within the faintly glowing area there was some form of cloud like structure. I think that must be it. Finally, definitely noctilucent clouds. Maybe even if the weather today stays fine have another look this evening.

For more information about the how and why of all the phenomenon I've mentioned and many more, Les Cowley's Atmospheric Optics website is the best - http://www.atoptics.co.uk/

One of my long-standing ambitions is to see an aurora, and in recent years I've added noctilucent clouds to that, although I'm not sure whether I've already seen them. For 13 years (until 1999) I was out two or three nights a week delivering magazines, and I saw a great many nighttime sky phenomena. I'm sure I saw luminous clouds on several occasions, but I don't know if they were true noctilucent clouds, or high clouds reflecting the rays of the yet-to-rise-above-the-horizon sun.

I did see a beautiful lunar halo a few years ago, on a bitterly cold and clear night. I even wrote a journal entry about it. It was a perfect 360° circle, and I stood and looked at it for a good ten minutes.

Some friends moved from London to Tromso in Norway, north of the Arctic Circle, about a year before I came to Texas. I really must find time to visit them and hope for a display of Northern Lights.

Thank you (no really!) for waking me up to go and have a look. I've been reading lots of reports on Spaceweather recently of widespread sightings of noctilucent clouds, related to the deep solar minimum we're in, and staying up far too late to see if any shining clouds turn up in the North. So thanks for making sure I didn't miss these