Just over a week ago, on the 23rd June 2025, we had our first display of Noctilucent Clouds (NLC) this summer season. I have written about how these high altitude clouds are formed in a previous post. Here is what I saw at just after 11pm BST (22:04 UT):-
This image was taken with a Sony RX100 (1/3s, f/1.8, ISO 1600) and has been cropped so that the cloud features can be seen more clearly (click on the image to obtain the full size version). To the right, near the chimney pot, the head of the constellation of Perseus is rising. The maximum elevation of the clouds is about 16 degrees above the horizon and the display stretches about 49 degrees in azimuth across the sky. I thought that there were three types of cloud present here - type I which is a type of veil, type II which are lines or streaks and type III which appears as a fine herring-bone pattern (this can be seen most clearly to the left of the picture just above the old TV aerial).
It is interesting to me that I have seen these clouds on exactly the same date on 23rd June last year (2024) and the 23rd June 2021. It makes me wonder if this may be the time when these clouds can first be seen in the season.
A few days later on the 28th June 2025 I saw some more:-
This was not such a good photograph as it was hand held (Sony RX100, 1/2s, f/1.8, ISO 400) but it does show the type III herring-bone pattern at low elevation (much lower than before, the maximum elevation was only about 7 degrees). This was taken a bit later at 22:37 UT.
What is an odd coincidence is that I saw NLC's on the 28th June last year too. Next year I must see if this pattern in dates of appearance repeats again (provided we get some clear weather).
All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2025
