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Welcome to the Observatory!

This site is intended for anyone interested in astronomy, and particularly anyone who would like to be a member of the Bootham School Astronomy Society. This membership is available to all members of the Bootham community, and students from other York schools who have attended the ISSP course on astronomy at Bootham. If you choose to subscribe by email, you will receive an email of any new post within about twenty four hours. There will also be twitter updates before an observatory session, and you are recommended to follow me on twitter using the button on the right of this screen.

Saturday 16 June 2012

If ever the sky clears, you might see some interesting clouds

No really. Mid-summer is the time for noctiluctant clouds. These are very high altitude clouds that appear to glow electric blue in the dark. You have to stay up very late to see them, and they seem to switch on for just a short period every year. Nobody really knows yet what causes them, but theories include space dust or possibly global warming. They are not the northern lights, but they are very special and rather lovely to catch in the midnight summer sky.


this picture was taken by Brian Whittaker as he flew his plane over Newfoundland on the 13th June.
source: spaceweather.com
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