APOD: Aurora Over Raufarhöfn (2012 Apr 30)

[APOD Robot]

Aurora Over Raufarhöfn

Explanation: It was all lined up even without the colorful aurora exploding overhead. If you follow the apex line of the recently deployed monuments of Arctic Henge in Raufarhöfn in northern Iceland from this vantage point, you will see that they point due north. A good way to tell is to follow their apex line to the line connecting the end stars of the Big Dipper, Merak and Dubhe, toward Polaris, the bright star near the north spin axis of the Earth projected onto the sky. By design, from this vantage point, this same apex line will also point directly at the midnight sun at its highest point in the sky just during the summer solstice of Earth's northern hemisphere. In other words, the Sun will not set at Arctic Henge during the summer solstice in late June, and at its highest point in the sky it will appear just above the aligned vertices of this modern monument. The above image was taken in late March during a beautiful auroral storm.

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[/b]

[Boomer12k]

I am sorry, but with a picture like this it is hard not to get religious...

:---(===) *

[Beyond]

Man, that is one-heck-of-a vantage point Why, it's just about purr-fect

[Jon-in-FL]

Does it point to the true north pole or the magnetic pole. And if the true north pole,why?

[Jon-in-FL]

I am sorry, but with a picture like this it is hard not to get religious...

:---(===) *

Seems to me the aurora would be "a light in the window" for Wotan [or the other gods] to find their way home. It's certainly a powerful proof of religion, and one the early Christian missionaries had difficulty refuting.

[Ann]

Man, that is one-heck-of-a vantage point Why, it's just about purr-fect

Purr-fect, ahh!!!

Ann

[nstahl]

I am sorry, but with a picture like this it is hard not to get religious...

Not for me it isn't. The monuments are man-made. The aurora is natural, and well-explained, not supernatural.

[RedFishBlueFish]

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: Less is more.

The image would be more effective if it was not too large to fit on the screen of most monitors.

I am puzzled as to why this strong image should inspire some to think of stoning transgressors, burning heretics, or slaying infidels/unbelievers - rather than it giving rise to such feelings, I have instead a sense of the tranquil beauty of world when we take the time to be in it.

The cold light from distant stars shines down on much insanity.

[geckzilla]

I know this one was chosen because the sky beyond the aurora is easier to point out, but I actually enjoyed this one better:
http://www.nuitsacrees.fr/DP/islande2012mars/as/as8.jpg

The symmetry and the brightness of the aurora are just so nice!

[orin stepanek]

beautiful Picture Stephane!

[neufer]

Does it point to the true north pole or the magnetic pole. And if the true north pole,why?

Auroral lines are aligned along local lines of magnetic field.

Arctic Henge (like most henges) is aligned towards the summer solstice sunrise
which at the Arctic Circle is towards the true north pole.

[c]. http://video.pbs.org/video/1636852466/[/c]


<<Carefull calculations made from Hollar's drawing of Shakespeare's 1613 Globe Theatre showed the stage to have faced about 48 degrees east of north, that is, about the same relation to summer solstice sunrise as Stonehenge.>> - p. 256 Shakespeare the Evidence by Ian Wilson

.
<<King James I (1566-1625), ordered the first authoritative study of Stonehenge, when instructing his Surveyor-General of Works, and great architect, Inigo Jones to survey the structure to determine how it got there. Jones' first conclusion was that Stonehenge was constructed with such design and beauty that it could not have been built by the Druids as previously thought. The Druids and others of the time were considered barbaric, unskilled people. Jones concluded that Stonehenge had to be constructed by civilized people who were skilled in architectural design and mathematics. Inigo Jones died on summer solstice: June 21, 1652.>>

[list][list]The Tempest > Act IV, scene I[/list]
PROSPERO: Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
[list]. As I foretold you, were all spirits and
. Are melted into air, into thin air:
. And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
. The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
. The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
. Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
. And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
. Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
. As dreams are made on, and our little life
. Is rounded with a sleep.[/list][/i][/color][/list]

[neufer]

I am sorry, but with a picture like this it is hard not to get religious...

Seems to me the aurora would be "a light in the window" for Wotan [or the other gods] to find their way home.

[c]No Norse sagas mention aurora at all!?[/c]
.

[Chris Peterson]

The image would be more effective if it was not too large to fit on the screen of most monitors.

The link to the source image (normally obtained by clicking on the APOD image) is broken. If that gets fixed, you'll be able to open the image directly, and it will be displayed optimally sized in your browser... like all APOD source images. You should always assume that the image displayed on the APOD main page has been edited: they are frequently cropped, sharpened, changed in color, or any number of other alterations. Always click through to the source to see the real thing.

[RJN]

I just fixed the broken image link. (Sorry.) About the image size -- I am experimenting with keeping the image width on the main page at 960 pixels since that is on the order of a typical pixel width of a browser window in 2012 and it also seems to be the pixel width of my iPad 1 window in landscape mode. Long images like this have always been a bit of a problem since the page looks sparse if the image is kept to a standard pixel height. In long image cases like this we used to put the text beside the image, but now that might break many of the APOD mirrors that parse the standard format. That said, an immediate exception to this will be tomorrow's entry (unless breaking news pushes that APOD further into the future). - RJN

[Chris Peterson]

I just fixed the broken image link. (Sorry.) About the image size -- I am experimenting with keeping the image width on the main page at 960 pixels since that is on the order of a typical pixel width of a browser window in 2012 and it also seems to be the pixel width of my iPad 1 window in landscape mode. Long images like this have always been a bit of a problem since the page looks sparse if the image is kept to a standard pixel height. In long image cases like this we used to put the text beside the image, but now that might break many of the APOD mirrors that parse the standard format. That said, an immediate exception to this will be tomorrow's entry (unless breaking news pushes that APOD further into the future). - RJN

I think that, as a rule, it's a good idea to settle on a standard width and let the height go where it goes. That's pretty consistent with standards for good web design. Obviously, on a site like this, there will be exceptions (like huge panoramas).

As long as the source image is available in a common image format, it should always be simple for people to display it any way that is comfortable for them, since both browsers and image viewers offer so many options.

[JohnD]

Quote from the first "Arctic Henge" link:
"The Henge will harness the Midnight Sun at the Arctic Circle." Harness? How?
"It is inspired by the mythical world of eddic poem Völuspá (Prophecy of the Seeress)." So far so literary, but the saga makes no mention of stone circles or towers, or any construction like this, so it is a modern invention.
"The Henge will be 52m in diameter, containing a Dwarf Path including the names of 72 dwarfs which form a year-circle in which each dwarf has five days. A crystal at the top of an 8-metre-high column will throw light all over the Henge. Each dwarf will have his name and character, and visitors can find their own Birthday Dwarf." Again the Saga lists the dwarves, but apart from "Mótsognir ... the greatest of the dwarves" ascribes no characteristics to any of them.

Read the saga in English at http://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/voluspa.htm

This is either commercial madness and greed, Disneyland on Ice or World of Warcraft, to attract tourists, or else a "re-imagining" of Old Nordic religion and astrology, in which case good luck to you, but this has absolutely nothing to do with astronomy.

This is one APOD and links we could well do without.
John

[Chris Peterson]

"The Henge will harness the Midnight Sun at the Arctic Circle." Harness? How?

By surrounding it visually from a certain perspective.

"It is inspired by the mythical world of eddic poem Völuspá (Prophecy of the Seeress)." So far so literary, but the saga makes no mention of stone circles or towers, or any construction like this, so it is a modern invention.

Of course it's a modern invention. Inspired by an ancient saga. That doesn't mean copied from.

This is either commercial madness and greed, Disneyland on Ice or World of Warcraft, to attract tourists, or else a "re-imagining" of Old Nordic religion and astrology, in which case good luck to you, but this has absolutely nothing to do with astronomy.

The image references the path of the Sun over the year and it references the aurora. Both are of astronomical significance.

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]The Chinese invented having a collar around a horse's neck to have more control over the horse. This idea didn't reach Europe until 300 years later.[/color] http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=46216[/b]

---

"The Henge will harness the Midnight Sun at the Arctic Circle."

• Harness? How?

By surrounding it visually from a certain perspective.

"It is inspired by the mythical world of eddic poem Völuspá (Prophecy of the Seeress)." So far so literary, but the saga makes no mention of stone circles or towers, or any construction like this, so it is a modern invention.

Of course it's a modern invention. Inspired by an ancient saga.
That doesn't mean copied from.

It's a modern version of an ancient invention inspired by an ancient saga.
(Sorta like the Globe Theatre.)

This is either commercial madness and greed, Disneyland on Ice or World of Warcraft, to attract tourists, or else a "re-imagining" of Old Nordic religion and astrology, in which case good luck to you, but this has absolutely nothing to do with astronomy.

The image references the path of the Sun over the year and it references the aurora. Both are of astronomical significance.

[c]Astrognomony[/c][/b]

<<The gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow.
Gnomon (γνώμων) is an ancient Greek word meaning "indicator", "one who discerns," or "that which reveals.">>

<<A gnome is a diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characteristics have been reinterpreted to suit the needs of various story-tellers, but it is typically said to be a small, humanoid creature that lives underground.

The word comes from Renaissance Latin gnomus, which first appears in the works of 16th Century Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. He is perhaps deriving the term from Latin gēnomos (itself representing a Greek γη-νομος, literally "earth-dweller"). In this case, the omission of the ē is, as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) calls it, a blunder. Alternatively, the term may be an original invention of Paracelsus. Paracelsus uses Gnomi as a synonym of Pygmæi, and classifies them as earth elementals. He describes them as two spans high, very reluctant to interact with humans, and able to move through solid earth as easily as humans move through air.

The chthonic spirit has precedents in numerous ancient and medieval mythologies, often guarding mines and precious underground treasures, notably in the Germanic dwarves and the Greek Chalybes, Telchines or Dactyls.

The English word is attested from the early 18th century. Gnomes are used in Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock". The creatures from this mock-epic are small, celestial creatures which were prudish women in their past-lives, and now spend all of eternity looking out for prudish women (in parallel to the guardian angels in Catholic belief).>>

[Boomer12k]

I am sorry, but with a picture like this it is hard not to get religious...

Not for me it isn't. The monuments are man-made. The aurora is natural, and well-explained, not supernatural.

But they did not know that back then....

:---(===) *

[Beyond]

But they didn't know that back then....

Well... stay away from 'back then', then.

[owlice]

I am sorry, but with a picture like this it is hard not to get religious...

Not for me it isn't. The monuments are man-made. The aurora is natural, and well-explained, not supernatural.

But they did not know that back then....

Back when??

the recently deployed monuments of Arctic Henge

[neufer]

Not for me it isn't. The monuments are man-made. The aurora is natural, and well-explained, not supernatural.

But they did not know that back then....

Back when??

the recently deployed monuments of Arctic Henge

How does one deploy (or ploy) a monument

Ploy, v. i. [OE. plien, F. plier to fold, to bend, fr. L. plicare] (Mil.)
To form a column from a line of troops on some designated subdivision; -- the opposite of deploy.

Deploy, v. t. & i. [F. déployer; pref. dé = dés (L. dis) + ployer] (Mil.) To open out; to unfold; to spread out (a body of troops) in such a way that they shall display a wider front and less depth; -- the reverse of ploy; as, to deploy a column of troops into line of battle.

[Moonlady]

How long does it take time to take a picture with this intensty as a result? (Exposure etc)



Neufer...don't inform western husbands about that Chinese collar...

[Nuitsacrees]

Hello,
Thank you all to enjoy this picture. I am very honored to be able to share it with you. For these "explosive" aurora, you must make very short exposure as not to smooth the shining effect. You must also use an ultra wide angle lens at full aperture. For this picture, the lens used is a 14 mm with a full frame camera at F2,8, 4 seconds exposure and 2000 ISO. Shooting in RAW mode is highly recommended to retrieve brightness without too much noise.
Stephane Vetter

[Stefano79]

For me that's fantastic!
Bye