Thursday, February 17, 2011

Atmospheric Optics

People rarely look in the sky with intention of spotting some of the most awesome nature creations. Atmospheric optics. Surely we've all seen iridescent clouds and crepuscular rays. But there are many more awesome-sky phenomena, and they are not rare as we think - we just don't look in the sky often enough. However, they are rare enough that when we see them, we are pretty amazed.

One of the most common atoptics are halos (sun and moon), iridescents clouds, rainbows and sun dogs.


With little human help you can even see gravity waves - really awesome phenomena and you should check it out on youtube or download the video (10 MB) where waves are clearly visible. And they are awesome.
You can also see gravity waves without rockets - on clouds, airglows, etc. Rarely.


Circumhorizon arc

Anti-crepuscular rays










 



















Gravity Wave




















Atmospheric Optics  - Leading site for atmospheric optics. With explanations and pictures of every one.

8 comments:

  1. wow, thats really cool. i'll have to look up more.

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  2. I like those chilly nights when there are no clouds at night and you can see all the glowing stars. I just stare for a long time :) supporting

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  3. Very cool photography. I've never heard of gravity waves, that is very cool. Nice blog.

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  4. cool stuff man, yeah i never heard that the gravity waves were what caused this, supposedly massive waves in the airstream or something. cool stuff tho especially if they are grav waves ;)

    followed and coffeed

    http://somashanktank.blogspot.com/

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  5. outstanding photos! the heaven can be really fascinating sometimes.. too bad it's mostly grey here

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  6. wow, impressive skies! they are hard to see

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