APOD: A Heart Shaped Lenticular Cloud (2016 Feb 14)

[APOD Robot]

A Heart Shaped Lenticular Cloud

Explanation: Can a cloud love a mountain? Perhaps not, but on a Valentine's Day like today, one might be prone to seeing heart-shaped symbols where they don't actually exist. A fleeting pareidolia, the featured heart was really a lenticular cloud that appeared one morning last July above Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand. A companion video shows the lenticular cloud was mostly stationary in the sky but shifted and vibrated with surrounding winds. The cloud's red color was caused by the Sun rising off the frame to the right. Lenticular clouds are somewhat rare but can form in air that passes over a mountain. Then, vertical eddies may form where rising air cools past the dew point causing water carried by the air to condense into droplets. Unfortunately, this amazing sight made the fascinated videographer late for breakfast.

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[Boomer12k]

Happy Valentine's Day anyway....such a beautiful cloud...

:---[===] *

[old dude]

Yo, Nature, FTFY.

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

If you were a star and
the planets brought you their moons
how would you teach them to be
their best - and bloom?

For Valentine's Day today I thought it appropriate to shine beacon from the past to celebrate the teachers whom we all owe much - including the three teachers in my family (and a certain teacher who got me interested in chemistry back about the time this movie was made - and I actually had a crush on)

I'd wish all teachers could be made to feel so appreciated.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Since this is an astronomy site (but with deference to Lulu's lyrics) I might bend their dimension a bit…

For Stars to Shine

Those star girl days of telling tales
Is gone - though the light of a
Teaching mind - I know
Will still live on and on

But when do you thank someone
Who has taken you
From quirks to anti-quarks
It isn’t easy, but they tried

If you wanted the star
Soaring across the sky - send out light
To search for everything their hearts can find
For Stars to shine

A time must come for closing loops;
A long last stare at my best guess
And as I leave I know
That I’m leaving my very best

My friends who have spun up from down
And weak from strong
That's a lot of momentum so, what
does it give you in return?

If you wanted the moon
I would try to make a star
Teach everything would come rather easily
If a star's moon shines

[revloren]

Nice shot. But I will point out that lenticular clouds do not form where "eddies" of rising air. They are actually part of the main, laminar flow of mountain wave where large volumes of air rise and fall. The eddies in this process are called 'rotor' and pilots know that they can create violent turbulence.

[jisles]

It's a pareidolion, not a pareidolia; that's the plural.

John

[Chris Peterson]

It's a pareidolion, not a pareidolia; that's the plural.

There's no such thing as a "pareidolion". "Pareidolia" is a mass noun, without any distinction of singular or plural. As an uncountable phenomenon, the sentence would have been better constructed as "a fleeting example of pareidolia".

[Tekija]

It's a pareidolion, not a pareidolia; that's the plural.

There's no such thing as a "pareidolion". "Pareidolia" is a mass noun, without any distinction of singular or plural. As an uncountable phenomenon, the sentence would have been better constructed as "a fleeting example of pareidolia".

Indeed, but here is a pareidolion: http://www.lulu.com/shop/stefan-r-ruthe ... 36038.html

[mrh]

seasonal appropriateness aside, isn't this technically a Meteorology Picture of the Day?

[starsurfer]

I actually expected today's APOD to be the Heart Nebula.
I also think a picture of merging galaxies would have also been appropriate.

[DavidLeodis]

I wonder why "this amazing sight made the fascinated videographer late for breakfast" as according to the image's Exif data (obtained through the image in Michael's http://www.michaelkunze.de website) it states of the image "Date/Time Original 2015:07:30 20:45:48+02:00". I guess it must have been a very long walk back .

[michael_kunze]

I wonder why "this amazing sight made the fascinated videographer late for breakfast" as according to the image's Exif data (obtained through the image in Michael's http://www.michaelkunze.de website) it states of the image "Date/Time Original 2015:07:30 20:45:48+02:00". I guess it must have been a very long walk back .

Hi DavidLeodis,
the EXIF data do not reflect the New Zealand time. In my camera is the Central European Time always set. I think at that time it was 12 hours. Therefore, I did not walk as long.

[DavidLeodis]

I wonder why "this amazing sight made the fascinated videographer late for breakfast" as according to the image's Exif data (obtained through the image in Michael's http://www.michaelkunze.de website) it states of the image "Date/Time Original 2015:07:30 20:45:48+02:00". I guess it must have been a very long walk back .

Hi DavidLeodis,
the EXIF data do not reflect the New Zealand time. In my camera is the Central European Time always set. I think at that time it was 12 hours. Therefore, I did not walk as long.

Hi Michael .

Thanks for your clarification. I had wondered in view of the gorgeous views of the clouds and scenery that you simply took a long time to get back to enjoy them as long as possible. The scenery and clouds in the video are quite spectacular.