Lights in the Sky [electronic resource] : Identifying and Understanding Astronomical and Meteorological Phenomena /
Maunder, Michael.author.
Moore, Patrick.
Amateur astronomers spend a lot of their time observing the sky, but not everything up there is necessarily an astronomical phenomenon. Nor is everything immediately identifiable. How many people can tell the difference between a Sun Dog and a Glory - both meteorological phenomena? Or between the Zodiacal Light and the Gegenschein, which are astronomical? Lights in the Sky is a truly comprehensive guide to observing, identifying, and imaging sky glows and other unusual atmospheric/astronomical phenomena, in both the night and daytime skies. If, as a practical observer, you want to be able to identify what it is when you are faced, for example, with the Specter of the Brocken - or with an unidentified flying object that is...well, unidentified...then Lights in the Sky will provide all the practical scientific information you need.
Includes index.
Part 1: Identifier -- Daylight -- Dawn and Dusk -- Night -- Part 2: Astronomical and Meteorological Phenomena -- Dawn: Zodiacal light -- Season for pre-dawn sighting -- Red sky, Shepherd's warning -- Crepuscular rays -- Daylight: Haloes and coronas also detached arcs -- Sundogs and mock suns.-Iridescence -- Glories -- Heiligenschein -- Rainbows and fogbows -- Dusk: Zodiacal light Season for twilight sightings -- Red sky Shepherd's delight -- Solar pillars -- Green flash -- Spectre of the Brocken -- Mother of pearl clouds -- Volcanic dust ( Krakatoa 1888, via El Chicon 1981 to Pinatubo 1990) -- Other dust: Bishop's ring, green and blue suns -- Night: Light pollution -- Milky Way -- Messier objects -- Caldwell objects -- Gegenschein -- Lunar haloes -- Lunar rainbows -- Aurorae -- Nacreous clouds -- Noctilucent clouds -- Meteors -- Other phenomena: marsh gas, fireflies: Lightning -- Ball lightning -- UFOs: Human perception -- Mistaken identities -- Astronomical and meteorological -- Man-made -- Extraterrestrial visitors?- Burden of proof -- The Fermi paradox.
Amateur astronomers spend a lot of their time observing the sky, but not everything up there is necessarily an astronomical phenomenon. Nor is everything immediately identifiable. How many people can tell the difference between a Sun Dog and a Glory - both meteorological phenomena? Or between the Zodiacal Light and the Gegenschein, which are astronomical? Lights in the Sky is a truly comprehensive guide to observing, identifying, and imaging sky glows and other unusual atmospheric/astronomical phenomena, in both the night and daytime skies. If, as a practical observer, you want to be able to identify what it is when you are faced, for example, with the Specter of the Brocken - or with an unidentified flying object that is...well, unidentified...then Lights in the Sky will provide all the practical scientific information you need.
Astronomy.
Observations, Astronomical.
Astronomy—Observations.
Meteorology.
Popular Science in Astronomy.
Astronomy, Observations and Techniques.
Meteorology.
Practical Astronomy