Steven Marshall Photography
  • Home
  • Menu
    • Image Galleries >
      • Recent Images
      • Images of Ardgour
      • Images of Ardnamurchan
      • Images of Moidart
      • Images of Morvern
      • Images of Sunart
      • Images of Our Night Sky
    • A Year on the Peninsulas >
      • January
    • Night Sky Guides
    • Tuition & Guidance >
      • ​Photography for Beginners
      • Introduction to Lightroom
      • ​Photography for Intermediates
    • Photo Studio
    • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Mailing List Sign Up
  • Shop
    • 2023 Calendar
    • Prints >
      • Ardgour Prints
      • Ardnamurchan Prints
      • Moidart Prints
      • Morvern Prints
      • Sunart Prints
      • Night Sky Prints
    • Greeting Cards >
      • A6 Greeting Cards
      • DL Greeting Cards
      • A5 Greeting Cards
    • Boxed Notecards
    • Mugs and Coasters >
      • Photo Mugs
      • Photo Coasters
    • Fridge Magnets
    • Jigsaws
    • Notebooks
    • Photo Book
    • eGift Cards
    • New Products
    • Reduced to Clear
  • Blog Page
Steven Marshall Photography Logo

Blog Page

Photographing the West Highland Peninsulas​
Ardgour | Ardnamurchan | Moidart | Morvern | Sunart

Shining in the Night

17/7/2021

0 Comments

 
Once rare noctilucent, or “night-shining” clouds are becoming a more common feature of our summer night sky and the increased presence of these ghostly whispers of light shimmering high up in the Earth’s atmosphere is thought to be as a result of human-caused climate change. Although this is certainly cause for concern, the sight of them is quite mesmerising and if you are a night owl, it is a sight that is not too difficult to photograph.
Midsummer noctilucent, or
Image 1: Tioram Night Shining I - Castle Tioram, Dorlin, Moidart
​In the 8 or so weeks either side of the Summer Solstice, which this year was on 21 June, the days are long and the nights are short. In fact, the sun gets to no more than 10-15 degrees below the horizon and this makes it a lean period for both aurora chasers and stargazers because astronomical, or full darkness does not occur at any point during the night. The resulting all-night twilight means that it is simply too light to see the “Merry Dancers” and all but the brightest stars.
 
However, all is not lost because what you can see are noctilucent, or “night-shining” clouds. They become visible in the north to north-west sky as darkness falls and just as the brightest stars become visible. They have the appearance of ghostly whispers of light shimmering in the all-night twilight and are usually set against a pearly-blue sky.
Midsummer noctilucent, or
Image 2: Tioram Night Shining IV - Castle Tioram, Dorlin, Moidart
​These night-shining clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere. They form in the middle atmosphere, or mesosphere, roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) above Earth's surface. They are thought to be made of ice crystals that form on fine dust particles from meteors and volcanic activity. These ice coated dust particles then reflect the light that the sun projects high up into the sky, when it is between 6 to 16 degrees below the horizon, to create an illuminated cloudy veil in the northern sky at latitudes between ±50° and ±70°.

They are first known to have been observed in 1885, two years after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, but it remains unclear as to whether their appearance had anything to do with the volcanic eruption or whether their discovery was due to more people observing the spectacular sunsets caused by the volcanic debris in the atmosphere. 
​Once considered to be extremely rare, sightings of these shimmering, high altitude clouds are becoming more common and this increase is thought to be an indicator of human-caused climate change. In studies undertaken in the past 2-3 years, researchers used satellite observations and climate models to simulate how the effects of increased greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels have contributed to noctilucent cloud formation over the past 150 years. Their findings suggest that the extraction and burning of fossil fuels increased water vapor concentrations in the mesosphere by about 40 percent and this has more than doubled the amount of ice that forms there. As a result, the researchers concluded that human activities are the main reason why noctilucent clouds are significantly more visible now than they were 150 years ago.
Midsummer noctilucent, or
Image 3: Tioram Night Shining II - Castle Tioram, Dorlin, Moidart
​This does indeed give me cause for concern, but nevertheless, the sight of these shimmering and wispy clouds illuminating the upper reaches of our summer night sky is quite mesmerising. I was fortunate enough to both see and photograph them on a mid-July night at Castle Tioram when it barely got dark. They seemed to not only illuminate the sky but also the landscape around me. There is still time to see them so, if you are outside after midnight on a clear night, look north and you may be able to pick them out. 
Midsummer noctilucent, or
Image 4: Tioram Night Shining III - Castle Tioram, Dorlin, Moidart
​If you have a modern digital camera fitted with a wide-angle lens which you can mount on a tripod, you can try taking some photographs of them yourself. Put the camera on the manual setting, open up the aperture to at least f4, set your ISO 800 and take a few test shots at exposures of several seconds until you find the exposure time that works. You could even try photographing them with your smart phone if it has a “Night Mode” setting.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Hi, I’m Steven Marshall, a Scottish landscape photographer based at Rockpool House in the heart of the beautiful West Highland Peninsulas of Sunart, Morvern, Moidart, Ardgour and Ardnamurchan. Get in touch for photography tuition, tours and print sales.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020

    Categories

    All
    Ardgour
    Ardnamurchan
    Autumn
    Bluebells
    Coastline
    Equinox
    Folklore
    Islands
    Legends
    Lighthouse
    Local History
    Moidart
    Moon
    Morvern
    Night Photography
    Night Sky
    Northern Lights
    Oakwoods
    Sea Views
    Solstice
    Springtime
    Stargazing
    Stories Behind Photos
    Summer
    Sunart
    Sunrises
    Sunsets
    The Small Isles
    Tides
    War Memorial
    Wellbeing
    Winter
    Woodland

Picture
Steven Marshall Photography,  Rockpool House,  Resipole,  Strontian,  Acharacle,  PH36 4HX
Telephone: 01967 431 335  |  Mobile: 07585 910 058  |  Email: steven@smarshall-photography.com
All Images & Text Copyright © 2023 - Steven Marshall - All Rights Reserved
  • Home
  • Menu
    • Image Galleries >
      • Recent Images
      • Images of Ardgour
      • Images of Ardnamurchan
      • Images of Moidart
      • Images of Morvern
      • Images of Sunart
      • Images of Our Night Sky
    • A Year on the Peninsulas >
      • January
    • Night Sky Guides
    • Tuition & Guidance >
      • ​Photography for Beginners
      • Introduction to Lightroom
      • ​Photography for Intermediates
    • Photo Studio
    • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • Mailing List Sign Up
  • Shop
    • 2023 Calendar
    • Prints >
      • Ardgour Prints
      • Ardnamurchan Prints
      • Moidart Prints
      • Morvern Prints
      • Sunart Prints
      • Night Sky Prints
    • Greeting Cards >
      • A6 Greeting Cards
      • DL Greeting Cards
      • A5 Greeting Cards
    • Boxed Notecards
    • Mugs and Coasters >
      • Photo Mugs
      • Photo Coasters
    • Fridge Magnets
    • Jigsaws
    • Notebooks
    • Photo Book
    • eGift Cards
    • New Products
    • Reduced to Clear
  • Blog Page