Астронет: Астрономическая картинка дня Северное сияние над Рауфархофном http://variable-stars.ru/db/msg/1264047/eng |
Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter
(Nuits sacrees)
Explanation:
It was all lined up even without the colorful aurora exploding overhead.
If you follow the apex line of the recently deployed monuments of
Arctic Henge in
RaufarhЖfn in northern
Iceland from this vantage point,
you will see that they point due north.
A good way to tell is to follow their apex line to the line connecting the end stars
of the
Big Dipper, Merak and Dubhe, toward
Polaris, the bright
star near the north
spin axis of the Earth projected onto the sky.
By design, from this vantage
point, this same apex line will also point directly at the
midnight sun
at its highest point in the sky just during the
summer solstice of Earth's northern
hemisphere.
In other words, the Sun will not set at
Arctic Henge during the summer solstice
in late June, and at its
highest point in the sky it will appear just above the
aligned vertices of this modern monument.
The above image was taken in late March during a
beautiful auroral storm.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.