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If you had asked me near the end of May what I thought about the prospects of getting a good Noctilucent Cloud display this season I would have answered by saying extremely low to almost zero. The reason being that NLC frequency is very closely connected to the eleven year solar cycle and unlike the Aurora Borealis which become much more active during solar maximum, NLCs are the polar opposite, their frequency becomes very much reduced during peak solar activity. The reason being that increased temperatures in the Mesosphere combined with increased UV radiation radically reduces ice crystal and water droplet formation thanks to a bombardment of solar wind stream events, proton storms and CME impacts, of which there have been many in recent months, so with 2024 approaching solar maximum I was anticipating an uneventful Summer with not much to show for the NLC season at all.
In fact, my expectations were so low that I honestly had adopted the mind set that if I could just see one or two displays visually then I would consider that a bonus, however if I could get one time lapse of a mediocre display with subtle structure then I would be happy enough, however given that the previous two seasons were almost entirely clouded out for me I wasn't even hopeful of that. By late May several unconfirmed NLC reports and images began to surface on social media, this was intriguing as I was certainly not expecting to hear of any activity so early in the season but there they were. By June NLC activity suddenly began to ramp up with displays appearing with ever increasing frequency and complexity, at this stage I was starting to take an interest and even though none of them looked all that photogenic from what I saw online they began to give me hope that I might actually get images of an OK display after all, if I could get clear skies that is.
During June I managed to glimpse two displays visually between clouds and even though both of these were not worthy of taking the camera out for I will confess that I was quite overjoyed so see them again, I don't recall observing any during 2023 at all so it had been at least two years since I had actually seen a real life NLC display. Once I did however that old magical feeling came back which reminded me of all the years I've spent documenting these remarkable clouds, then the normal clouds came back and nothing was seen since. One fairly good display suddenly appeared that was notably tall, some photographers captured it from N. Ireland however I was completely clouded out yet again which was disheartening but when I saw images of that display I knew something was up, we should not be seeing NLCs of that standard at all during solar maximum so what on Earth was going on?
I did a check on the weather forecast. Based on several sources it looked like I finally would have a completely clear night on June 25th so I decided I was committing myself to an NLC hunt that night no matter what. If NLCs appear or not is completely unknown, they cannot be forecast and their presence is entirely unpredictable and its this aspect of the phenomena which makes them so exciting to watch for. Each night is a hunt when an observer goes outside during the NLC window period when the Sun is between 6 and 16 degrees below the horizon then scans the twilight arch with the naked eye with particular attention focused close to the horizon along the NW, N or NE compass points, careful scrutiny of the region of sky in proximity to the golden star Capella can be a good place to search. Weak NLCs are often missed by inexperienced observers or they are so low in the sky they remain obscured from view by trees or buildings. If NLCs are not present two hours after sunset then one cannot give up as they can suddenly appear later in the night during the pre-dawn hours so during July a serious observer would need to be scanning the sky from pre-midnight to at least 3am which can be exhausting for most people, NLCs are anti-social clouds.
To increase your chances of success, and assuming you have a lucky run of clear nights, then you need to be doing these checks every night so it does take much discipline. Some are put off by this practice, others think they can consult online charts like the aurora and try and predict when they will appear however NLCs are elusive and cannot be predicted so there's no easy way, no cheats, no life hacks, you need to be serious if you want to spot these clouds. There's one thing that a new NLC observer can do to increase their chances of success and that's to monitor social media looking for reports from various parts of the world, for example if sightings come in from Europe then at least you know you have a chance later if you live inside the NLC visibility latitude range, however watching for online reports still means staying up late and just because Europe gets a show doesn't mean you will, these clouds wax and wane and I've seen nights this season when northern England had NLCs, then a couple of hours later when twilight appeared across N. Ireland there was nothing to be seen at all!
The second NLC display I observed this season was interesting, reports came in from the UK and this time I spotted NLCs low in the north from home so I grabbed the gear and walked 15 min's out the road, through a field with soaking waist high grass and got the camera set-up, then the NLCs literally vanished, as I watched as they became seemingly erased from the sky and I never got an image. This was the fastest NLC fade event I had ever experienced which goes to show that nothing is certain with these clouds, the truth of the matter is that one has to stick to the old fashioned method of simply checking the sky from your own location with the naked eye each clear night, this is the only way to get ground truth.
This season began to stir my interest however I still wasn't expecting to get anything good on camera but for the sake of my passion for NLCs I was dedicated to getting something, even if it was weak, all this NLC thinking put me in a very reflective mood and I began to look back on the displays I had witnessed during previous years. I accidentally saw my first display in the year 2000 as a result of comet hunting and that's how I became interested in the subject, I was simply awestruck by these amazing glowing apparitions in the sky and back then unless you were an experienced amateur astronomer nobody had ever heard of them, no one!, the public never knew they existed or had ever heard of the name, remember there was no social media in those days and the internet was only beginning to take off, all we had were a few basic websites and some early forums but most of our information and sky alerts came from astronomy magazines.
Since that year I read everything I could on the subject and began my own Summer twilight watches every clear night, I became quite obsessed with them. My mate Conor McDonald and I did nightly vigils out in the country, even if it was cloudy incase a break appeared, we really became very passionate about the subject. We then befriended veteran NLC observer John C McConnell who was extremely well known for documenting these clouds all his life, it was nice to meet someone else who was into NLCs as much as we were and John was delighted as always to pass on his knowledge and personal experiences with these clouds so from then on we kept in close touch about this phenomena.
I got my first digital camera during the Summer of 2000, well I tell you a lie, it was my Mother's camera, it was borrowed from her school and was meant to be used during the course of her work but I ended up climbing onto the kitchen bench and grabbed the camera which my Mother thought was hidden on top of the cupboards out of sight where our beautiful white cat Gizmo always slept. So at night I would sneak this camera outside, mount it on a tripod and did our watches. Success came early and it wasn't long before I captured two displays with this camera, which by the way was only 1 million pixels!, but these were my very first NLC images and I was hooked. In 2002 I did get my own first camera for Christmas in the form of a Fuji Finepix E510 with 5.2 million pixels which even had a night mode on it allowing exposures between 2 and 5 sec's, I scored again with this camera capturing a beautiful display one pre-dawn morning.
By 2005 I got my first 'serious' camera in the form of a Fujifilm S5600 bridge camera with a zoom lens and that's when things really took off for me. One Summer's night in 2006 Conor and I were doing a watch when a stunning NLC display appeared, it was the best we had ever seen, we shot it all night long and the buzz we felt from documenting NLCs on these warm nights while everyone else slept was indescribable. The next day our images appeared on the home page of spaceweather.com which was such a satisfying experience, Dr Tony Philips used the image of Conor sitting on the grass at 1am in a t-shirt with sunglases on with NLCs glowing in the sky behind him, it was then that we realized that alot of people around the world were interested in these clouds, we also learned than NLCs were not only of extreme interest to scientists but they were extremely photogenic and unlike anything anyone had seen before from here. Our images even ended up in the local newspapers and appeared on the TV news and weather, I'm fairly certain this was the first time the general public got to hear about NLCs in this manner, it really was an exciting time, it seemed like interest from N. Ireland was growing and sure enough in the years which followed these clouds have earned a big following with this year probably having the most prolific online coverage I've ever seen.
As I was re-living these memories I thought about the most spectacular NLC display I had ever seen in my life. This took place on June 18th/19th 2009 during a very deep solar minimum. I found my old images on a CD RW disk, re-edited them, then decided to do a website report on this special night. It was beyond me why I never did this at the time, I did have the images on an old gallery with my exact words which I wrote at the time so I had to do it justice. So after sunset on June 25th/26th 2024 I was sitting at my computer writing this report for the website and as I wrote I thought to myself its going to be a very long time since I will see a display of that caliber again, it really was a once in a life time event, I suspected I would just have to live longer to the next solar minimum to even have a chance of seeing something like that again. Then as I typed the last sentence of that report I glanced out the blinds and saw a clear blue sky at dusk and jokingly thought wouldn't it be amazing if another once in a life time display happened tonight after me re-living the 2009 event all over again, that would be very fitting indeed, but reality check, that prospect was probably zero.
My DSLR and drone batteries were fully charged, I was ready to leave later in the night, the plan was to just drive out somewhere and watch the sky all night hoping to see something, anything, even a trace of NLC. I did my checks on social media, I didn't see any reports at all from Europe, then later nothing from the UK, typical, first proper clear night and it looked to be a damp squib. I went on facebook messenger and chatted with Nigel McFarland and Colleen Webb about NLC potential. Colleen was getting anxious as she wanted to get a decent display too but had an early rise for work in the morning, I said to her ''you likely won't miss anything anyway'', to which she responded ''famous last words'', I laughed at her response, I loved the positivity. Soon after Nigel posted an image on chat, he was located on the north coast at Gortmore viewing point and had just shot the sunset, a little later he had sent through images of a red sunset afterglow along the ocean horizon, I looked at the image, I saw faint white streaks embedded within the red, I said to Nigel ''that looks like NLC, can you confirm?'', a few minutes later Nigel sent over another image, those white lines were still there and looked to have grown, they looked like short bands, I said that's ''100% NLC''.
I was drinking a cup of tea at the time and just like on that 2009 epic night I walked outside to check the sky, I was anticipating scanning the low horizon between the houses for those faint streaks, however as I walked along the driveway I casually looked up and saw NLCs filling the sky!!!, I was in complete shock and said ''holy shi*'' out loud, the NLCs were directly overhead!!!, I couldn't believe it, surely this couldn't be happening, was I being an idiot and mistakening twilight cirrus for NLC?, no, it was NLC and it had all the classic structure on view and the sky was covered, I didn't know where to look, this was like 2009 all over again. I ran back inside, threw the tea down the sink, went onto chat and just typed ''massive NLCs here!'' then grabbed my camera gear and my dog Rhua, then began driving into the countryside in a complete panic.
It was around 23.30 at this point, I didn't know where I was going but for some reason I felt compelled to head to Lough Fea, I wanted somewhere away from lights were I could get peace but not too far away which meant missing the display. The 20 minute drive felt like hours, the view through the windscreen was incredible with vibrant silver type 5 brightness NLCs filling the entire windscreen, also out the driver and passenger windows and as I leaned forward they were still not far from the zenith, I felt compelled to stop and shoot as I was missing a great moment but I remained committed to my destination. I knew this was an exceptional and rare event taking place, I also knew from experience that things were going to get better soon, once the sun dropped further the NLCs would lower in height but the background sky would get darker making the clouds seem to glow with an unearthly brilliance, the clouds would be also be getting viewed from more of an oblige angle which meant potential for great structure, my favourite aspect.
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I pulled over at the southern side of Lough Fea, grabbed camera bag, two tripods, drone, then Rhua and I literally ran along the pitch black path which surrounded the lough, all I had was my head torch to see where I was going. Rhua was completely confused wondering why we were running along here in the middle of the night. Due to recent dry weather the water was low and exposed areas of the shore were available for setting up on, Rhua and I navigated across many rocks then I rushed to get the gear ready. First of all was the Canon 5D Mark IV with 15-30mm F/2.8 lens, I turned it to the N and began shooting a wide angle time lapse. The NLCs extended from the NW to the NE and as the sun lowered the classic electric blue colours began to show, it was amazing to think this was meteor residue surrounded by ice crystals reflecting sunlight. I was in too much of a panic to set up my second camera to shoot the NW side so I immediately turned to my drone, I had never tried it on an NLC display before however with this large and exceptionally bright event this would be the perfect time to give it a go.
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I powered up the DJI Mavic 3 Classic and launched it from my hand into the night sky then let it settle at 120m, the view on the live screen was beautiful and the structure was awesome. I began taking images in manual mode then video sequences and the drone performed flawlessly, I was blown away by what I was seeing. Large scale whirls with vivid knots and formations of herringbone all jumped out of the sky in striking contrast, Capella was washed out by the clouds and the tops of the NLCs where still a good 60-70 degrees high, I could barely fit the display into the FOV with the horizon. To give you a sense of scale to appreciate the extent of this display imagine panning the drone to the left for another one and a half camera fields and that would take in the full display.
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Looking north across the lough, it was a surreal feeling knowing my drone was high above me seemingly among the stars while down below Rhua and I stood on our rocks watching the sky. The night sky looked like a mid-summer's night dream come true, I was still in shock that I was seeing this, solar maximum, we shouldn't be seeing this at all and this was the only clear night across N. Ireland this week then this appears with little warning, it was nearly too much to take in. This was rite up there with the best NLCs I've ever experienced, this was after midnight and I knew it could potentially get even better, I had a growing instinct I was witnessing something very special. The vibrant blue and silver clouds stood out boldly over a stunning bed of orange along the horizon marking the position of the unseen sun. I looked around, the lough was glowing bright blue, Rhua who was sitting beside me was bathed in a eerie blue light, I was surrounded by silence, I was in my element.
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I really liked this view showing both sections of the lough with the island in the middle with NLCs glowing on the water. My phone was ringing like mad from several mates, no doubt wanting to talk about what we were all experiencing rite now, I so wanted to answer but couldn't as I was still flying and needed to concentrate. I brought the drone down fairly low and filmed sections of the NLCs as it skimmed two meters over the water, during daytime this would have been easy but at night it was much more intimidating, the last thing I needed was for the drone to fall into the water so I needed my wits about me. I got a nice sequence with the drone flying low behind me with NLCs reflecting in the water, this was something I wanted to try again later.
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I went through two full drone batteries then returned to my DSLR. I removed the 15mm lens and replaced it with the 50mm F/1.8, the NLCs were dropping in height with the sun, this was a good thing, the viewing perspective was changing which meant serious structure scenes were possible soon, the darkest part of the night was also soon approaching then I would have another hour after that before the sky got too bright again before dawn. This was the 50mm image, already those whirl patterns were getting brighter and more complex.
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Panning DSLR to NW where completely different forms were on display. These were more delicate and softer like a painter's brush strokes with IIa soft bands, IIb hard edged bands, then the classic waves/herringbone then waves with undulations crossing at angles. Note the subtle hint of red on top of the NLCs, that's the colour of the setting sun reflecting off the upper edge of the clouds, in space these are known as Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) however from the ground we call them Noctilucent Clouds. Rhua and I made our way back to the van, I wrapped her in a blanket and she fell asleep, in the meantime I tried to compose myself, filmed a vlog, then decided to change location. The hills on this side of the lough where obscuring the lower sector of the display so I decided to go for a drive around the south side of the lake, along country roads, I was the only car there at this time of the night. I wanted to check out the scenic route along the west side of the lough, I had already been checking it out in daylight over the weekend susssing out storm chasing locations.
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I rounded a corner, drove onto a more elevated position, cleared a group of trees, then entered a vast clearing, I glanced out the window and my jaw almost hit the floor. This was the darkest part of the night and the NLCs were mind blowing!, yet again on this night I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was on a narrow dark country road then pulled into a small gap on the grass verge beside a gate with just enough room for the van then got outside for a look. For the second time this night I exclaimed ''holy shi*'' out loud, this was epic. I set-up the 5D Mark IV with 50mm lens on the road side and began shooting another time lapse, this was the first image. Everytime I looked at the sky my dark adaption was destroyed, the colours of the NLCs were more vibrant than earlier, I could see deep blue, silver, white, hints of yellow and green below those and the icing on the cake was the striking orange horizon glow which contrasted perfectly with the blue NLCs, this was the stuff of dreams.
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I let the camera do its thing then got the drone in the air once more, I wanted this last battery to count. Full wide angle on the Hasselblad four thirds camera using manual settings. This was 1.3 seconds, ISO400 at 12mm F/2.8, the structure to the N and NE was stupendous, that was the only word I could think of.
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Another aerial image cropped in somewhat, the whirls were truly awesome, this display was playing out exactly like my best on June 2009 in every way. If you ever see a big NLC display in the evening twilight don't go home when it begins to drop in height, I promise you more times than not that very display will be even more spectacular later, magic time is 01.00 to 02.30. I could tell by watching the clouds they were getting slightly brighter and taller, we were starting to slowly emerge from the darkest time of the night into the final phase of the display, the pre-dawn show.
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Between 01.30 and 02.30 the sky was simply out of this world, I was just standing there thinking ''are you serious?'', the main display was type 4.5 brightness with sections of type 5 appearing, the ground and my van were being illuminated again and shadows were cast on the ground. The structure truly was epic with graceful curves and swirls which could be seen moving in real time, the S shaped forms almost looked like writing in the sky and the whirls took on an almost elemental look with what looked like whirlwind formations with waves crisscrossing these at all levels. A closer looked revealed bright enhancements called knots with pools of shadows and small complex holes or pits often called lacunosus holes, the latter isn't an official part of NLC structure classification but can be found in weather terminology to describe forms seen in several species of cirrus cloud.
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As I stood on this back road I never saw a single person or met a car, there were no lights nearby and my surroundings were bathed in darkness, I had fields on one side and a distant lake on the other, it was complete bliss, it felt like I was one with the sky, it certainly had my undivided attention.
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I still had the drone in the air with 53% percent battery remaining. The only star visible was Capella to the far upper left of frame, below that was a raging Noctilucent storm.
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I saw the 'running man' form, John McConnell would inform me the following day that he saw it too, sometimes NLC structure can take on biological forms and it isn't unusual to see animal shapes or that of a person with legs, the last time I saw the running man was 2006. It's difficult to show on images as its more of a visual phenomena which the brain creates in the moment.
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Everytime you witness an NLC display you are essentially observing a comet, or at least the ghost from comets past, you are also observing ancient material from the beginning of the solar system's formation that pre-dates the Earth and Human existence. These clouds consist of tiny particles no larger than the particles within cigarette smoke, cosmic dust in the form of residue from the formation of the solar system, dust formed by collisions between asteroids and residue from moon-planet formation but also from comets. Imagine a cometary nucleus releasing large quantities of dust via jets which form the classic coma and tail, once a comet eventually becomes inactive, hits a planet or the sun, breaks apart, or is thrown out of the solar system that dust is still present within the inner solar system for millions of years.
If the Earth passes through this dust during the course of its trip around the sun then we get a random meteor or even a meteor shower. When a meteor ablates in the upper atmosphere due to heat and friction it dispenses a portion of that fine dust within the Mesosphere, it doesn't take long for the Earth to accumulate a lot of it each year, this process is taking place every single day. If the Mesosphere is cold enough and has sufficient moisture, which it often has during Summer months in the northern hemisphere with temps of -120 degrees C reached, then ice crystals will encase these cometary dust particles which lower into the southern part of the Mesosphere and become visible when sunlight reflects off those crystals, this is when ground based observers see NLCs in their twilight skies. It's amazing when you think about it, since comets date back to 4 or 4.6 billion years old then when you see NLCs you are looking at your own ancestors, after all, comets may have helped deliver a percentage of the water and organic compounds during impact events to help kick start life on Earth. Noctilucent Clouds really are space clouds in every sense of the word.
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Deep crop into those glorious whirls with classic 'sand ripples on a beach at low tide' type III waves
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Between 02.30 and 03.00 the NLCs began to peak in brightness once again at type 5 with ever evolving whirl formations, I will admit that I was only casually glancing at the NW portion, it was the N and NE which had me captivated, I couldn't keep my eyes from it. Then I had almost forgot to check, I glanced behind me high into the SW, there was Corona Borealis the Northern Crown, there was no new star in the SE corner so recurrent Nova TCrB hadn't erupted yet, I wonder will this be the next rare night sky event to happen soon?
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NLC vortex
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I wasn't sure what to make of these forms, they almost looked like Bee hives or acorns
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As I watched in awe I knew immediately that I was observing one of the finest NLC displays of my life, this was rite at the top alongside the June 18th/19th 2009 display, but which one was the absolute best and the pinnacle display of my observing career?, it was a tough decision to make but I leaned ever so slightly towards the 2009 display for a couple of reasons. 1) First time impression and visual/emotional impact of such a display, 2) the whirl forms were more rounded and complex almost like partial loops which were very solid looking, and 3) the naked eye gold colour below the blue was the icing on the cake. However if I'm to be honest there isn't a big difference between the two, both are head to head but 2009 just had a slight edge but in any event 2009 and 2024 will rank at the top of the scale and the subject of my NLC stories in years to come.
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I don't know if my storm chasing mind set was influencing me or not but I was fairly sure I was seeing a tornado, perhaps Sister tornadoes, those dark twisting forms within the NLCs.
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Crop from another exposure, yes I'm calling that an elephant trunk NLC tornado, check out the distant wind turbines to the left for a sense of scale
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The NW sector was getting interesting with multiple rows of bands and waves tilted at an angle with respect to the horizon, they looked like rolls in a blanket, John Fagan would describe them as looking like a successon of ocean waves which I thought was a nice adjective.
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I ended up having a blast with the drone, instead of taking high altitude images and footage, which are great for getting down to the horizon but which lack a sense of scale or context, I decided to try low level flying which at night can be risky. I wanted to try selfie-type scenes so I could make the footage more personal which would be a great way of cherishing the memory of this night. I turned on my head torch so I could be seen in the dark and did low level flying along the road so I could frame myself with the NLCs, this was tricky as I really had to fly low to get myself within the scene and in the semi darkness I could make out a wire fence and gate which I didn't want to clip, I had to fly over a dark field, skim the fence by 10-20cm at most, then do a partial wrap around myself over the road without hitting myself or the van. I repeated this in different directions then forwards and backwards, it looked brilliant on the screen and I was absolutely buzzing. Here's a drone image from that aerial adventure, definitely a special moment captured to look back on.
It was 03.15 and the NLCs were still strong however the background sky was getting brighter and I decided to call it a night. I drove home in a complete natural high still not believing the display I had witnessed. June has been a bad month for sky action in N. Ireland due to poor weather, cooler temperatures, cloudy nights and absolutely no thunderstorms, it was on the verge of becoming the most unremarkable June I've ever experienced, until now, this NLC display made the month and possibly even the entire Summer. I was back home for 03.40 then spent until 04.30 getting my footage and images off loaded onto the hard drive and re-charging my gear. Before going to bed, as an after thought, I sent in the image of myself with the NLCs into spaceweather.com with a write up on my thoughts regarding how this display ranked.
The next day it become obvious that many people witnessed the display, even those who had never seen NLC before so for them this was their first sighting, social media was inundated with images, it seemed that Scotland and Ireland/N. Ireland got the best show, it was a remarkable event. I've already stated I placed it at or near my top display since 2000 (24 years) however I was delighted to get feedback from other veteran NLC observers who have been watching the skies for longer than I have. All of them agreed it was close to the top or even the best they had ever seen. John C. McConnell rated it as one of his best ever and he has been observing them for 60 years and Terry Moseley didn't hesitate to rate it as one of his best also, I think these remarks speak volumes, but the question kept coming to mind, why were they so good during a year when NLCs were supposed to be weak?
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Several obvious sources began to emerge during the hours following this display, at first the culprit may have been a dramatic increase in Space-X rocket launches with more than a hundred of them over the last few months, these would certainly have introduced water droplets in the upper atmosphere contributing to NLC formation, however I was not convinced that was the full explanation. Spaceweather scientists then brought forward a more interesting and compelling theory. In 2022 the Hunga Tonga under sea volcano erupted violently, perhaps the most disruptive eruption since Krakatoa in 1883, however this eruption took place under the ocean between two islands.
The Tonga eruption was so violent it threw vast amounts of water vapor into the Stratosphere, studies showed that it would take two years for the water to get transported into the higher Mesosphere and that's the exact time interval since Tonga, this makes for a very compelling case. As a result of this increase in water vapor the NLCs essentially have been feeding on atmospheric steroids making them prolific this season. It blows my mind to think that this beautiful display we all enjoyed was caused by comet dust and an undersea volcano, nature truly is amazing! I now wonder will there be other great displays to be observed this season?, only time will tell.
Full length video footage of the NLCs via drone covering the evening, midnight, and pre-dawn apparitions. Most of the footage is by drone however I've also included vlog sections using my phone and the footage climaxes with the DSLR time lapse then raw video footage before ending the night, the last ten minutes of this video are worth seeing in my opinion. Then two days later the image of myself with the NLCs appeared on the homepage of spaceweather.com which was a lovely surprise with John McConnell's report on the same page, it felt like the good old days were back once more. Thanks very much for reading.
Martin McKenna
