Auroral Hummingbird over Norway

Is this the largest hummingbird ever? Although it may look like a popular fluttering nectarivore, what is pictured is actually a beautifully detailed and colorful aurora, complete with rays reminiscent of feathers. This aurora was so bright that it was visible to the unaided eye during blue hour – just after sunset when the sky appears a darkening blue.

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      • HamartiogonicEnglish
        52·
        2 days ago

        Too good to be true. Looks awesome, but the perfection of it looks really suspicious. Still could be true anyway. We see all sorts of funny patterns in clouds all the time, so why not in aurora as well.

    • untorquer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      It’s a long exposure. But yeah the Aurora can be rather bright given geography, atmospheric, solar conditions, and luck. Definitely easy to get views like this with the naked eye closer to the Arctic circle.

      • Evotech@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Sure, but that a long exposure will end up like a hummingbird is what I’m questioning

        If it was real it would have been featured on the artists page at least no?

        • untorquer@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          The aurora can display in a lot of ways. Often it looks like columns appearing then disappearing like dust catching sunbeams through the blinds. It’s the same idea as taking a long exposure of a thunderstorm. The lightning didn’t all happen at once.

          Where someone posts an image can also depend on community preference and care given to posting in multiple communities.

          Also odd to suspect something in a science community is less likely to be real than one in an art community but, all things being even, the skepticism is a bit healthier here i guess.

          At the end of the day, this doesn’t look unlike a real aurora and the time lapse is also evidenced by the brightly lit hilltop… … And the stars. And bright unlit areas

        • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          It looks as much like a hummingbird as a cloud can look like an elephant. The viewer has already been prompted to see a hummingbird, and humans are very good at finding a pattern in something random. I can easily believe it to be real, but I’m not sold on the idea that it particularly resembles anything significant.

    • kyle@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      The only other link to OPs picture I saw was on a Spanish Twitter page that does astronomy tours.

      I did find a random IG poster that has photos taken in Norway as well and there are some weird patterns I wouldn’t have expected. https://www.instagram.com/p/DD47EBVS6jq/

      • Evotech@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        A random pattern is likely, a pattern that looks like this, less so.

        That’s just my opinion anyway, but yeah. The fact that I cant find this on the supposed photographers website makes me suspicious.