The Night Sky

Sun 26 Aug 2018, 12:41

Thanks everyone for their input---most interesting. Is the fact that there appeared to be two meeting points, one to the south and the other to the north (hence the fan appearance) an optical illusion caused by perspective ?

Sat 25 Aug 2018, 07:57 (last edited on Sat 25 Aug 2018, 07:58)

Thanks Helen for that youtube video. Now I know a little of the science of the formation of stripey clouds. I see it was made by the University of Nottingham. When I saw the sky it was like a giant art installation, with the moon playing a starring role.

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 21:38

After seeing it last night I googled "stripey clouds" and found this m.youtube.com/watch?v=rOdRbUQzajo - something to do with air rising and falling and travelling along at the same time...

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 20:42 (last edited on Fri 24 Aug 2018, 20:48)

Anyone interested there's a piece in Oxford Mail about clouds streaking across the sky in formation sending snappers out in their droves..with pictures....I first read it on FB...it does look amazing.

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 20:30

Thanks John H :)

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 19:19

Also found someone who saw it who says it was too low to be cirrus. So altocumulus radiatus.

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 17:03

The little Rissington one looks like altocumulus to us. Like lentics look when they come over from the high ground the other side of the forest and start to disintegrate when they reach Charlbury. I hope you know what I mean! Definitely lines of disintegrating altocumulus. Didn't see it IRL though.

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 15:53 (last edited on Fri 24 Aug 2018, 16:46)

Thanks John, and Harriet (I might have guessed you would come up with something). The BBC pictures (and Geoffs, which I have now seen) unfortunately raise as many questions as they answer. The one from Little Riss looks as though the cloud could be at cirrus level but the others give the impression they are much lower. The pictures may be deceptive but the clouds look more like Stratocumulus (SC) or low Altocumulus (AC), all lower than the 16,000 ft indicated the aircraft John referred to. Oh! and I certainly wouldn't describe them as cumulus streets.

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 15:45

Here you go

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-45296731

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 15:39

Tony. The cloud was pretty high ,I checked the height of a couple of aircraft they were flying well below the cloud base at approx 16000 feet,shame you did not see it ,a wonderful spectical.Alas come midnight it had all cleared. The reason Alex I did not use my surname is historically there were 2 Johns contributing, to avoid confusion I called myself John H. If it is of importance to those who do not know me the name is Harrison,any future posts will still be from John H.

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 15:27

took a pic, not sure if I can post it on here and how

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 15:08 (last edited on Fri 24 Aug 2018, 15:10)

Thanks for the suggestion, Simon.
Unfortunately, I wasn't outside and didn't see the sky at that time and without an idea of the height of the cloud, (if that's what it was) it's difficult to comment. Your suggestion looks as good as any. Glenna describes "fans" radiating in opposite directions, so perhaps an alternative might be persistent contrails from aircraft travelling in opposite directions. That could of course be described as 'man made'* cirrus.

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 13:49 (last edited on Fri 24 Aug 2018, 13:50)

John H - Rosemary says can you please use your real surname as not doing so might frighten the horses or the overly PC Charlbury middle England brigade!

;)

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 11:06

It looked like a laser display,after many years looking skyward I have never seen this cloud/moon display, marvellous show. Tried to get pictures but no luck. Glena I do not think it is the end of the World. John H

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 09:34

Zebra stripes running east/west all across the sky. Beautiful but very spooky!

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 08:46

We'd certainly never seen anything like it before. Quite stunning! A quick web search suggested that it was a cloud formation called cirrus radiatus, although Tony Graeme may be able to throw some more light on that - even though the moon was doing a pretty good job on its own.

Thu 23 Aug 2018, 23:01

Amazing sky tonight ! At 10.45 p.m. two fans of lines of lit cloud radiating from two points---one north of Charlbury and one south. What can this mean ?