Lights from ... the Southern-Sky
This 360° panorama was captured from the Atacama Desert in Chile, one of the most suitable places on Earth for astronomical observation, and more precisely from the European Observatory of "La Silla". Note that the dome in the foreground is the home of the TRAPPIST Telescope, which discovered the famous system of 7-earth-size exoplanets around a red-dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1!)
Anyway, this image not only shows the Milky Way spanning over the entire field of view but also an impressive amount of strange colorful wave-like structures in the whole sky!
This orange/red light emitted at 85 km altitude (and higher) does not originate from artificial light pollution or high altitude clouds. This rare phenomenon called Airglow is entirely natural and originates from an interaction between the Ultra-violet light of our Sun and the particles of the upper layers of the atmosphere.
During the day, the highly energetic UV light of the sun hits the atoms of oxygen, sodium, nitrogen...etc of the Earth's atmosphere. This absorption of energy puts them in an excited state that only waits for an external process to be able to release this excess of energy. Using Chemiluminescence, the atoms of the atmosphere are slowly releasing this absorbed UV-llight into visible light, before going back to their stable energy state. The emission of light, whose color depends on the chemical element involved in the reaction (oxygen for red airglow, sodium for green airglow), continues even during night-time when the sun has set for few hours.
As a fluid, Airglow follows the air flow of the atmosphere and the variation of gravity field caused by the topography of the ground, which produces the so-called "gravity waves" (not gravitational waves!).
These gravity waves are what make the main spatial feature of airglow in the sky: wave-like and ripple-like structures, with strong inhomogeneities.
Red and orange airglow (even a little bit of green) were very strong during that night in Chile! Even though this natural phenomenon is very common in this region of the world, it is usually not as intense as it was during that night! You can also spot the zodiacal light, a tilted cone of blue light starting from the lower horizon and extending to the galactic center.
The two photographers next to the TRAPPIST observatory are Norédine and Olivia, two astronomy social enthusiasts of our group of 8 which was chosen by ESO to participate to its #MeeESO event.
The other observatories visible in this image are (from right to left) : the Danish 0.5-meter telescope, the ESO-0.5-meter telescope, the ESO-1.52-meter telescope and finally the tiny illuminated dome in the top horizon is the huge ESO-3.6-meter telescope.
17 images were captured and stitched together to form this 360° panoramic view. Neither photo blending/digital art nor over-exaggerated colors/contrasts. The success of this panorama holds in the fact that I used an ultra wide angle lens : a Sigma 14 mm F/1.8 which enabled me to capture far less images and to spend far less time than if I had used a standard lens (35 mm focal length).
Anyway, this image not only shows the Milky Way spanning over the entire field of view but also an impressive amount of strange colorful wave-like structures in the whole sky!
This orange/red light emitted at 85 km altitude (and higher) does not originate from artificial light pollution or high altitude clouds. This rare phenomenon called Airglow is entirely natural and originates from an interaction between the Ultra-violet light of our Sun and the particles of the upper layers of the atmosphere.
During the day, the highly energetic UV light of the sun hits the atoms of oxygen, sodium, nitrogen...etc of the Earth's atmosphere. This absorption of energy puts them in an excited state that only waits for an external process to be able to release this excess of energy. Using Chemiluminescence, the atoms of the atmosphere are slowly releasing this absorbed UV-llight into visible light, before going back to their stable energy state. The emission of light, whose color depends on the chemical element involved in the reaction (oxygen for red airglow, sodium for green airglow), continues even during night-time when the sun has set for few hours.
As a fluid, Airglow follows the air flow of the atmosphere and the variation of gravity field caused by the topography of the ground, which produces the so-called "gravity waves" (not gravitational waves!).
These gravity waves are what make the main spatial feature of airglow in the sky: wave-like and ripple-like structures, with strong inhomogeneities.
Red and orange airglow (even a little bit of green) were very strong during that night in Chile! Even though this natural phenomenon is very common in this region of the world, it is usually not as intense as it was during that night! You can also spot the zodiacal light, a tilted cone of blue light starting from the lower horizon and extending to the galactic center.
This leads to a new definition of what a high-quality sky for stargazing really is: not a dark-sky but a sky under which the rarest and the dimmest natural phenomena can be seen, revealing the true colors of the sky!
The two photographers next to the TRAPPIST observatory are Norédine and Olivia, two astronomy social enthusiasts of our group of 8 which was chosen by ESO to participate to its #MeeESO event.
The other observatories visible in this image are (from right to left) : the Danish 0.5-meter telescope, the ESO-0.5-meter telescope, the ESO-1.52-meter telescope and finally the tiny illuminated dome in the top horizon is the huge ESO-3.6-meter telescope.
17 images were captured and stitched together to form this 360° panoramic view. Neither photo blending/digital art nor over-exaggerated colors/contrasts. The success of this panorama holds in the fact that I used an ultra wide angle lens : a Sigma 14 mm F/1.8 which enabled me to capture far less images and to spend far less time than if I had used a standard lens (35 mm focal length).
Technical Details....
📷 Canon 6D + Sigma 14 mm F/1.8 HSM Art lens
→ Single 20-second exposure, no tracking mount, no photo-blending
→ ISO 6400
→ 14 mm
→ f/1.8
Softwares: Dxo Optics pro 9 for noise reduction / Microsoft ICE for stitching / Photoshop Lightroom for all the standard edits
→ Single 20-second exposure, no tracking mount, no photo-blending
→ ISO 6400
→ 14 mm
→ f/1.8
Softwares: Dxo Optics pro 9 for noise reduction / Microsoft ICE for stitching / Photoshop Lightroom for all the standard edits
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