Noctilucent Clouds, June/July, 2011.

This page was last amended on 31st May, 2011

The highlight of observing the sky for many amateur astronomers at this time of the year are noctilucent clouds.

The word “noctilucent” is made up from two Latin words, “nox”, meaning “night”, and “lucere” meaning “to shine” or “glow”.  So “noctilucent” aptly means that they are “nightglowing” clouds.  They are a silvery-blue colour, visible after Sunset, low in the N sky.

(We are indebted to Grant Privett for his permission to publish this stunning photograph.)

They don’t appear every night and are still something of mystery, but they are incredibly beautiful and it’s well worth looking for them.

Sadly there is some evidence that the amount of noctilucent cloud activity is inversely proportional to the amount of Sun activity, and as we are coming to the peak of Sun activity over the next year or two, we will probably see less noctilucent clouds.  But look for them anyway – they are beautiful.