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image credit & copyright: Hallgrimur P. Helgason; Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt


all of the other aurora watchers had gone home

by 3:30 AM in Iceland, on a quiet night last september, much of that night's auroras had died down

suddenly though, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the Earth's atmosphere once again

this time, unexpectedly, pareidoliacally, they created an amazing shape reminiscent of a giant phoenix

with camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately by a third of the land

the mountain in the background is Helgafell, while the small foreground river is called Kaldá, both located about 30 kilometers north of Iceland's capital Reykjavik

seasoned skywatchers will note that just above the mountain, toward the left, is the constellation of Orion, while the Pleiades star cluster is also visible just above the frame center

the new aurora lasted only a minute and would be gone forever -- possibly dismissed as an embellished aberration -- were it not captured in the featured, digitally-composed, image mosaic















in apod.nasa.gov/apod