Airglow
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Full Moon Eclipsed, Milky Way Revealed
During full moon, the bright moonlight washes out most of the interesting features in the night sky. What happens if the moonlight is blocked out?
This image, taken just after midnight of August 28, 2026 during a deep partial lunar eclipse, answers the question. Even when 96.3% of the lunar surface was in Earth’s shadow, the moon, the bright orb on the left, is still the brightest object in the sky. However, with the moonlight greatly dimmed, the Milky Way is now clearly visible, while airglow painted the sky green and red, Cities across Lake Ontario (Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls) gave the horizon its golden glow.
This image is a three-panel mosaic shot with my 14mm ultra-wide angle lens, covering from the horizon to the zenith and beyond.
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Perseid Meteor Shower and Airglow
The Perseid Meteor Shower is formed when Earth travels through the debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. The meteor shower can be seen annually from mid July to late August, and peaks around August 11 to 13 where 100 or more meteors can be seen per hour under ideal conditions. Dark skies are needed for the best view, as in Manitoulin Island, Ontario where this image was taken. This image captures the Perseids within a span of 3.5 hours. All Perseids appear to originate from a point, the radiant, in the Perseus constellation off to the right of the image. The airglow, formed as air molecules in the upper atmosphere were excited by solar radiation, was very faint to the eyes, but showed up as a green and red glow throughout the sky under long exposure.
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Airglow over Misty Canisbay Lake
A one-hour star trails session taken over Canisbay Lake, Algonquin Park got an extra shot of vibrance from airglow. While the airglow wasn’t visible to the eyes, it readily registered on the camera. Even the fog on the lake picked up the colour.
Airglow is a type of chemiluminescence – the emission of light from chemical interactions between oxygen and nitrogen atoms, and other free radicals created from solar energy in the upper atmosphere. While airglow may look somewhat similar to aurora, the energy producing aurora comes from solar wind particles directed towards Earth’s atmosphere through interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.
