An astounding photographic and video journey through some of nature's six most beautiful light shows.
Beautiful Light Shows: Star Trails
Star trails refer to the paths left by stars as seen on earth. As the earth naturally rotates, the stars in the sky move across the horizon. The only star that does not move is in the northern hemisphere – the North Star (Polaris).
The North Star remains stationary while the other stars leave tracks around it. Though not visible to the naked eye, the concentric light show has been captured at various times by eager shutterbugs.
Nature’s Six Most Beautiful Light Shows: Zodiacal Light
Though often hidden by prevalent smog and moonlight, Zodiacal lights are ever-present. They occur when sunlight reflects off dust in the cosmos (cosmic dust) and manifest into a faint triangular glow that extends across the sky.
Crepuscular Rays
Crepuscular rays are best described as “Gods light” and refer to the rays of sunlight that appear as though radiating from a single point in the sky.
The rays occur during dawn and dusk, when light and dark is easily discernible, and usually stream through gaps in clouds, or other landscape features, to obtain their effect.
Glory
A glory is an amazing natural light phenomena referred to as Buddha’s Light in China. Though a difficult to explain, they are formed when water droplets of a cloud interfere with the direct progress of sunlight. As a result, the waves of sunlight are back-scattered and split into the colors of the spectrum.
Rocket Exhaust Trails
Rocket exhaust trails are the aftermath of a rocket launch, occurring when the small exhaust particles from the rocket diffract sunlight. Add high altitude winds to the mix that carry the particles throughout the sky and you have a brilliant, vivid light show that quickly dissipates.
Beautiful Natural Light Shows: Light Pillars
Light pillars are an optical illusion created by light reflecting off of ice crystal surfaces. These ice crystals can be found in ice clouds, ice fogs, blowing snow or ground-level clouds, but the effect created is the same: a magnificent stream of light shooting up into the sky.
