June 13, 2025 Airglow and Milky Way

Tonight there was only a half an hour between twilight and moonrise. There had been ongoing geomagnetic activity from an unknown source, so I was excited for it to finally get dark so I could get some shots.

At first I pointed north, and didn’t see much. The Milky Way was rising towards the east and it captured my eye floating above the trees. I snapped a test shot and saw some airglow structure, so figured why not run a timelapse interval until the moon rises in 20 minutes or so and see what I get? I let it fly and went back to the telescope to catch some sights. Some nice globularios and pnebs. NGC5694 glob in Libra / Hyadara, Virgo’s feet glob NGC5634 - two of my faves. Then ring, cat’s eye, and the pneb in M24. Probably a few others. Oh yeah, that serpens pneb IC4593 the White-eyed Pea.

It wasn’t long before the moon came up and washed out the pretty darkness and faint glows. All the well because I was pretty tired. These nights near Summer Solstice are so short!

As seen in the GIF, the airglow was pretty faint though the movement was noteworthy. But how rare is it? I see something most nights that I go out and it is clear and moonless. Either aurora or airglow. Is this an artifact of solar maximum, or is it perpetual? AM I lucky? Am I situated in a location that is more prone to airglow or space weather, or is it just my Bortle 3/4 dark skies?

Is the airglow happening more often now than other times, or am I just getting better at noticing it and pointing my camera at the most dynamic parts of the sky? Guess we’ll see in a few years during solar minimum.

Is there a scale to measure the strength of the glow, or the level of ripples. Like, this here is normal everyday glow - barely detectable at a 15 second exposure. While this other event is spectacular, electric, knock your socks off glow! And also the amorphous “bright night” events.

What’s gonna happen tonight?