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Wow, I don't know if I've ever seen these, but they are fascinating. They are reported from New Zealand but I wonder if they are rarer as it never gets so cold.
A balm for my eyes, this whole edition. (And thank you for the mention of my Twitter thread!)
I also love how we're all transfixed by that same Brocken Spectre video on Twitter - I was planning to share it sometime soon (if Twitter doesn't explode, obvs), and then I got Freya Rohn's latest newsletter and it was there too (https://ariadnearchive.substack.com/p/commonplacing-269/comments) and now yours as well! I kinda love that. Some chap out for a walk sees a weird thing, and it ripples out into the world first on Twitter and then in dozens of newsletters. This is the way wonder should work.
At the same time - I've never seen a Brocken Spectre or a light pillar. I've written about them but the reality of them haunts me from a distance. Ditto the Northern Lights - I keep getting pinged by my AuroraWatch app and leap out into the night to find the skies are cloud-locked tighter than Fort Knox. I'm hoping for some incredibly clear but terminally cold geomagnetically active night soon, so I can wander out onto the beach and see the Lights, just before I freeze solid while stood upright, and someone walking their dog in the morning finds me stood there with an expression of pure delight on my face. That would be a good way to go...
Or I could just get a fleece balaclava?
Tell you what, I'll get a fleece balaclava. And a thermos flask.
Just fascinating, this world around us. Hiking in fog is creepy enough without seeing a Sasquatch! One phenomenon I witnessed during many years spent in the cockpit was high altitude Noctilucent clouds, seen predawn on east bound flights. At first glance seemed like regular cirrus, but clearly something different was going on, kind of blue-green, up at the edge of space. Would also see northern lights, but not as much as I would have thought. Read where folks from Greenland, hiking in New England were totally amazed at seeing lightning - they saw the Aurora all the time but never witnessed that way up north. Great post!
Wow, I don't know if I've ever seen these, but they are fascinating. They are reported from New Zealand but I wonder if they are rarer as it never gets so cold.
A balm for my eyes, this whole edition. (And thank you for the mention of my Twitter thread!)
I also love how we're all transfixed by that same Brocken Spectre video on Twitter - I was planning to share it sometime soon (if Twitter doesn't explode, obvs), and then I got Freya Rohn's latest newsletter and it was there too (https://ariadnearchive.substack.com/p/commonplacing-269/comments) and now yours as well! I kinda love that. Some chap out for a walk sees a weird thing, and it ripples out into the world first on Twitter and then in dozens of newsletters. This is the way wonder should work.
At the same time - I've never seen a Brocken Spectre or a light pillar. I've written about them but the reality of them haunts me from a distance. Ditto the Northern Lights - I keep getting pinged by my AuroraWatch app and leap out into the night to find the skies are cloud-locked tighter than Fort Knox. I'm hoping for some incredibly clear but terminally cold geomagnetically active night soon, so I can wander out onto the beach and see the Lights, just before I freeze solid while stood upright, and someone walking their dog in the morning finds me stood there with an expression of pure delight on my face. That would be a good way to go...
Or I could just get a fleece balaclava?
Tell you what, I'll get a fleece balaclava. And a thermos flask.
Yeah, okay. I like that plan better.
Just fascinating, this world around us. Hiking in fog is creepy enough without seeing a Sasquatch! One phenomenon I witnessed during many years spent in the cockpit was high altitude Noctilucent clouds, seen predawn on east bound flights. At first glance seemed like regular cirrus, but clearly something different was going on, kind of blue-green, up at the edge of space. Would also see northern lights, but not as much as I would have thought. Read where folks from Greenland, hiking in New England were totally amazed at seeing lightning - they saw the Aurora all the time but never witnessed that way up north. Great post!