The Day the Sky Went Green and Purple
It was spring 1996 and I was in Hull. It was late afternoon and the sun was beginning to set as I walked across the field. There was some light cloud in the sky, but plenty of sunlight was breaking through.

Did I mention that the sky was all seven colours? If I say that there was red and orange and a bit of blue, that would be unsurprising in the context of a spring evening. But - and apparently it had something to do with ice crystals in the upper atmosphere refracting the light in a certain way - the whole of the sky looked like a glowing version of the oil on top of puddles. The effect was muted to the naked eye, but, looked at through polarised sunspecs, it was much more pronounced... and stunning.

Following morning, it was on the front page of the Yorkshire Post; apparently the phenomenon had been visible all along the East coast, as far south as Cambridge.

Anyone else see that?



(Actually, if you look at the Manchester Hilton through polarised lenses in the right light, it looks pink.)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 11:17, 8 replies)

Actually, yes.
I saw that effect once. It may indeed have been the same night. It made the Courier here. And I took a photo of it, which I'll try to remember to dig out tonight.

It was a meteorological phenomenon known colloquially as a mother of pearl cloud. I don't know what the proper name is.

Polarised sunspecs are good for looking at laminated car windscreens, by the way.

Edit - Here it is.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 11:21, closed)

@K2k6
That's it: the third photo there, from Norway, is pretty much how it looked.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 11:31, closed)

That is
pretty impressive to see.

When I lived in Lincolnshire I saw something very like the first picture. It was an amazing thing to see, and I was too young to have been on anything mind altering.
( Moey, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 11:40, closed)

Damn Freaky
I've seen them a few times here in Alaska. They're more interesting to me than the northern lights, and they don't need a really dark sky to be seen, either.
(FleetlordVT, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 11:49, closed)

Oooooh, pretty.....
Was probably a big ghost what did that.
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 12:16, closed)

It's called "nacreous cloud"
... after the name for mother-of-pearl.

It happens when you get tiny ice crystals roughly the same size as the wavelength of light, very high up.
(gordonjcp, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 13:29, closed)

ooooh pretty
I like that. Could we arrange it on a regular basis? Much better than the usual boring grey skies.
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Mon 7 Jul 2008, 13:44, closed)

It's a rainbow.
'Cept with ice instead of liquid water.
( Digeridude Lord Wellington's Beef Trapeze, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 19:37, closed)