Bright NLC in moonlight

Looked out the living room window and saw bright noctilucent clouds low in the sky. Packed up cameras etc and jumped in the car and drove off. Chose a place with a low horizon in the north and easy to bring the equipment from the car. When I have just started preparing for the photo I hear steps in the dark and turn on the headlamp and also see a pair of eyes in the dark. After a while I see that it is a deer buck coming straight towards me. He comes very close and looks at me before he heads off, a powerful meeting in the dark.

In the sky the noctilucent clouds are low in the north but they are very bright and beautiful. The moon is up and creates nice moonlight over the landscape. Choose to do some timelapses and macro/widefield pictures, a nice night and the darkness is on its way back.

 

Bright NLC´s

 

Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, forming in the mesosphere about 76 to 85 kilometers (50 miles) above the surface.

Meaning "night-shining" in Latin, they appear as electric-blue, silvery, or glowing wisps during summer deep twilight when they are illuminated by the sun from below the horizon.

Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), also called polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) when viewed from space, are a tenuous atmospheric phenomenon. Unlike typical weather clouds that form less than 12 miles above Earth, NLCs occur at the very edge of space.How

For noctilucent clouds to form, three precise ingredients are required:

Extremely Low Temperatures: Temperatures in the mesosphere must drop below -120°C to -140°C.Water

Trace amounts of water vapor must be present.

Tiny dust particles are needed, primarily from micrometeors burning up in the atmosphere.

Water vapor freezes onto the meteoric dust to form microscopic ice crystals, which reflect sunlight. Their striking blue color is a result of the ice crystals scattering sunlight in the upper atmosphere.

Noctilucent clouds are a seasonal and latitudinal phenomenon. They occur only during the summer months when the upper atmosphere above the polar regions experiences its coldest temperatures.

Northern Hemisphere: Best viewed between mid-May and mid-August, primarily at mid-to-high latitudes (roughly 45° to 80° North, including northern Europe, Canada, and the northern United States).

Southern Hemisphere: Best viewed between mid-November and mid-February

Photos taken in Vallentuna Sweden 16-17/7 2026.

The veins of heaven - 23rd NASA APOD

I was honored with my 23rd NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) 11 july 2025. It shows beautiful Noctilucent clouds above a local lake near my home in Vallentuna Sweden. 

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250711.html

Noctilucent clouds and an active sun

 

Noctilucent clouds and Solar photos

Some amazing Noctilucent clouds in Norway and great activity at the sun with prominences, sunspots and filaments and more.

 

Crazy Noctilucent clouds

One of the best and wildest NLC displays I´ve seen!

Wow- great NLC with reflections

Wow, such a great Noctilucent clouds display it was tonight! I went to the lake of Vallentuna with very calm water and saw this magic display!

Todays APOD - Astronomy Picture of the Day

Today I´m honored with NASAs Astronomy Picture of the Day http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160730.html
The photo shows Noctilucent clouds above Färnebofjärdens Nationalpark Sweden

More Noctilucent clouds

My son noticed some nice Noctilcent clouds from his bedroom so we took a ride to the lake of Vallentuna and checked it out.

Strings of NLCs

At last a really great show of NLCs, this time by the Dalriver outside Hedesunda Sweden. My children went along a we witnessed a really nice show with allsky NLCs at 23.30 local time. The submitted photos were taken around 01.30 local time.

Clouds vs Noctilucent clouds - Video

Clouds vs Noctilucent clouds from P-M Hedén on Vimeo.

My latest video showing clouds vs Noctilucent clouds..a great show!

First really good NLC

First really good Noctilucent clouds display this season so far. It started really slow with just some bright parts low in the sky, later on after midnight it started to grow really fast and ended up with bright and beautiful formations. Photos taken with a Canon 6D, Canon 66D and different focallenghts. (And as usual Blogger edits the photos with sharpness, contrast and light - not good at all!)