冰岛的星夜

2020 January 5

A Starry Night of Iceland
Image Credit: Stephane Vetter (Nuits sacrees)

Explanation: On some nights, the sky is the best show in town. On this night, the sky was not only the best show in town, but a composite image of the sky won an international competition for landscape astrophotography. The featured winning image was taken in 2011 over Jökulsárlón, the largest glacial lake in Iceland. The photographer combined six exposures to capture not only two green auroral rings, but their reflections off the serene lake. Visible in the distant background sky is the band of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy. A powerful coronal mass ejection from the Sun caused auroras to be seen as far south as Wisconsin, USA. As the Sun progresses away from its current low in surface activity toward a solar maximum a few years away, many more spectacular images of aurora are expected.

冰岛的星夜
影像提供: Stephane Vetter ( Nuits sacrees )

说明: 在某些夜晚，天空上演的就是当地最佳的剧码。而在这个夜晚，夜空不仅有当地最出色的演出，据之组合出的天空影像，更是获得国际地景与天文摄影大赛优胜的作品。这幅优选主题影像，在在2011年摄于冰岛最大的Jökulsárlón冰川湖。摄影者组合了6张照片，以捕捉两道泛绿的极光环，与它们在宁静湖面的倒影。在遥远的后方背景里，银河系的盘面及仙女座大星系清楚可见。触发了这片极光的强烈日冕物质抛射事件，还造成南至美国的威斯康辛州皆可见的极光随着太阳离开目前的表面活动极小期，往数年后的太阳极大期迈进，可预期未来会见到更多精采的极光影像。