Noctilucent Clouds Time-lapse

Thursday 18th June 2009

You can get programs that allow you to create time-lapses with ease, but I didn't bother. When the northern skies were wreathed in nebulous cloud formations called noctilucent clouds, I got the camera out whether or not I had the software to create a time-lapse. The ideal result would be to have a piece of footage that showed the shifting and shimmering of these ghostly clouds, although it didn't quite turn out this way for a couple of reasons. At the end of the day, there was too much low cloud cover. Noctilucent clouds are so odd in appearance because they reside high in the atmosphere and catch the mid-summer sunlight that filters over the horizon, but this means you must have a clear sky. They form at around 80kms, which is almost out the top end of the atmosphere itself.

I also messed up the exposure because for the most part, these white clouds in the lightest part of the sky were over-exposed and often burned out. But this attempt was a valuable lesson for when I next go for a time-lapse. In addition to the video itself, I've put up a couple of photos taken from my window that show these clouds in a better light.

In the video, look out for the bathroom light going on and off as well as aircraft flying left to right on the approach to Glasgow Airport.

 Images



 Video