Got a vacation pic?

[ph1l]

I don't know if this is true or not, but a guy I know just got back from Iceland and he said the northern lights was such a letdown because they are actually not green when they are viewed with the naked eye. He said they were various shades of gray and the green color only comes through when viewed through a camera lens. Is that true?

It sounds like the color varies and is sometimes hard to see.

The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, can display a range of colors. The most common color seen from the ground is green, which is produced when charged particles collide with oxygen molecules at altitudes of 100 to 300 km¹. Occasionally, the lower edge of an aurora will have a pink or dark red fringe, which is produced by nitrogen molecules at altitudes of around 100 km. A bit higher in the atmosphere (at altitudes of 300 to 400 km), collisions with oxygen atoms produce red auroras. Finally, hydrogen and helium molecules can produce blue and purple auroras, but these colors tend to be difficult for our eyes to see against the night sky¹.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 8/8/2023
(1) The colours of the northern lights | Canadian Space Agency. https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/northern-lights/colours-of-northern-lights.asp.
(2) Aurora - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora.
(3) https://www.theaurorazone.com/about...e-northern-lights/the-northern-lights-colours. https://www.theaurorazone.com/about...e-northern-lights/the-northern-lights-colours.
(4) Northern and Southern Lights - timeanddate.com. https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/northern-southern-lights.html.
(5) Why are there different Northern Lights colours? - Aurora Nights. https://aurora-nights.co.uk/norther...thern-lights/why-are-there-different-colours/.

 

[elderado]

I don't know if this is true or not, but a guy I know just got back from Iceland and he said the northern lights was such a letdown because they are actually not green when they are viewed with the naked eye. He said they were various shades of gray and the green color only comes through when viewed through a camera lens. Is that true?

The issue is time of year. Generally, there's so much daylight this time of year, difficult to see. If you really want to see the northern lights, best time of year January thru March.

 

[Pekelo]

Could be the Canadian wildfires affecting the color of the lights. Greyish instead of green.

 

[Cabin111]

Montana...Helping my daughter move.

Beautiful, but you don't see the rattlesnakes and winter!!

 

[wrbtrader]

FTR

Still reading WRB

Correction...

Another ET member (a personal friend from the North Suburbs of Chicago/Jewish/born in Israel) informed me (clarification) about Skokie, Illinois when he saw my below statement about something that happened when I was a kid.

...Another piece of history, Skokie Holocaust Museum was set up in response to the Supreme Court of America ruling that Nazis can march in Skokie as an expression of Free Speech...​

He stated the Neo-Nazis never did march in Skokie although the Supreme Court had ruled in their favor that they could march there. The march actually would be moved from Skokie and take place in downtown Chicago but only after the Skokie residents had a very large anti-nazi protest.

Many of the Skokie residents were Jewish, WWII veterans, and Korea/Vietnam veterans...easily offended by a potential nazi march in their suburb.

Anti-Nazi Demonstrators counter-protesting in a Skokie park

https://abcnews.go.com/US/skokie-legacy-nazi-march-town-holocaust-survivors/story?id=56026742

Also, apparently, there was a movie scene (a bridge scene) about it in the movie The Blues Brothers. I'll look for it later.

wrbtrader

 

[traderob]

On holiday in Japan until September.

 

[RantaMin]

1 week in Sylt ))

 

[Overnight]

View attachment 321410 1 week in Sylt ))

There's something about that photo, the lighting, the focus, that makes it look like a painting. Pretty cool.

 

[traderob]

Kagogouri, shaved ice, by the crystal clear river today.

 

[Baron]

Kagogouri, shaved ice, by the crystal clear river today.

View attachment 321742

Interesting. So what's your impression of Japan so far?