Starship Asterisk*

In Green Company: Aurora over Norway

Explanation: Raise your arms if you see an aurora. With those instructions, two nights went by with, well, clouds -- mostly. On the third night of returning to same peaks, though, the sky not only cleared up but lit up with a spectacular auroral display. Arms went high in the air, patience and experience paid off, and the creative featured image was captured as a composite from three separate exposures. The setting is a summit of the Austnesfjorden fjord close to the town of Svolvear on the Lofoten islands in northern Norway. The time was early 2014. Although our Sun is nearing Solar Minimum and hence showing relatively little surface activity, holes in the upper corona have provided some nice auroral displays over the last few months.

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"Creative featured image". Are we to understand that the human figure at the top of that unscalable peak got there through Photoshop?

Antony Rawlinson wrote:"Creative featured image". Are we to understand that the human figure at the top of that unscalable peak got there through Photoshop?

Indeed! Inquiring minds want to know!

Ann

Ann wrote:

Antony Rawlinson wrote:"Creative featured image". Are we to understand that the human figure at the top of that unscalable peak got there through Photoshop?

Indeed! Inquiring minds want to know!

Ann

Indeed! I'm glad it's not me on top that peak!

I'm sure there are stairs on the other side.

I was very impressed by this picture the first time it was the APOD. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141103.html

E Fish wrote:I'm sure there are stairs on the other side. :)

Don't discount that! Seriously, I've been up on a number of peaks and outcrops surrounding Norwegian fjords. I've got pictures of me standing on things that make me look like a daring (or foolhardy) climber. In fact, a great many such spots only look so precarious from certain angles. Many times we're actually looking at structures with very easy access- long spines that look like peaks from the right angle, for instance. I don't know if that's the case here, but there are many such places.

I'm willing to believe the climber was really there. I think Chris is correct, that the positioning probably exaggerates the angle of the ridge to the peak. But those folks of Svolvaer are quite crazy. At right is a favorite local feature, they call "the Goat".

As to the APOD photo, I tried some Google Maps viewing of the Svolvaer area, and haven't been able to figure out much about this image and which way it was aimed. The caption said "early 2014" (as in winter, I take it). The location is north of the arctic circle. The sun on the horizon, must be at least to the south. It also said this foreground is " a summit of the Austnesfjorden fjord". That just tears up everything. It makes me think the image is facing west and has been left-right reversed.

But this is an astronomy site. Does anyone recognize any constellation in this image?

"Top of the world, MA!!!".....

Lovely shot.
:---[===] *

Chris Peterson wrote:

E Fish wrote:I'm sure there are stairs on the other side.

Don't discount that! Seriously, I've been up on a number of peaks and outcrops surrounding Norwegian fjords. I've got pictures of me standing on things that make me look like a daring (or foolhardy) climber. In fact, a great many such spots only look so precarious from certain angles. Many times we're actually looking at structures with very easy access- long spines that look like peaks from the right angle, for instance. I don't know if that's the case here, but there are many such places.

Down near the bottom-left of the image, along the snow-topped ridge, you can clearly see the climber's footprints. Looks like he/she just walked up there.

Rob

Max Rive, you crazy Norwegian. TOTAL bonkers to climb that shear peak!! I can see your footprints going up the snowy left side, WAY TOO crazy for me!
SPECTACULAR photo with the aurora as icing on the cake. WOW!!

MarkBour wrote: ...
As to the APOD photo, I tried some Google Maps viewing of the Svolvaer area, and haven't been able to figure out much about this image and which way it was aimed. The caption said "early 2014" (as in winter, I take it). The location is north of the arctic circle. The sun on the horizon, must be at least to the south. It also said this foreground is " a summit of the Austnesfjorden fjord". That just tears up everything. It makes me think the image is facing west and has been left-right reversed.

But this is an astronomy site. Does anyone recognize any constellation in this image?

Mark, I just read your question about the APOD.
Location and view angle are not only difficult to figure out, but the star fields don't jibe. I think that's partially due to projection distortion, partially due to star visibility behind the aurora, and maybe composite images don't show a contiguous sky. However, starting with Google and overlapping star chart images, I've anchored the direction by identifying a familiar constellation on the left side of the image. Above the reddish cloud, Lyra plus another dozen or so surrounding stars are visible and unmistakably identifiable. Assuming early January, 2014, and considering the relative orientation of Lyra, the view is eastward to the summit, with Lyra in roughly a NE direction and at the same altitude as the man. However, the relative brightness of Vega and other stars in the image so far off from what I expected that I was lucky to locate Lyra at all - it just popped out. Surprisingly I couldn't star-hop to any identifiable stars in the adjacent constellation, Hercules. I couldn't make any sense of the stars surrounding the summit. I've been assuming the image shows the sky at roughly the same time but possibly not. That would make identification much harder, and I did not extend my constellation search any further.

In any case, Lyra sets the direction which generally appears consistent with water and roads in Google maps, and, as you said, the pink sky sure looks like the sun below the horizon to the south. I found the summit confusing to identify and instead focused on big picture things that aren't so dependent on position.

alter-ego wrote:... Above the reddish cloud, Lyra plus another dozen or so surrounding stars are visible and unmistakably identifiable. Assuming early January, 2014, and considering the relative orientation of Lyra, the view is eastward to the summit, with Lyra in roughly a NE direction and at the same altitude as the man. However, the relative brightness of Vega and other stars in the image so far off from what I expected that I was lucky to locate Lyra at all - it just popped out. Surprisingly I couldn't star-hop to any identifiable stars in the adjacent constellation, Hercules. I couldn't make any sense of the stars surrounding the summit. I've been assuming the image shows the sky at roughly the same time but possibly not. That would make identification much harder, and I did not extend my constellation search any further.

Thanks, alter!
A fair bit of detective work, I appreciate you accepting the challenge. I stood roughly no chance of spotting Lyra in that.