This is the first time we ever witnessed airglow.

Niccole and I hosted the 2nd annual photography night at Meteor Crater this weekend. Friday night was freezing but otherwise a great time with good company. Saturday night, however, we were blessed with something called "airglow" or more specifically "nightglow."

"This is a green light emission that is very similar to the famous green we see in the northern lights. But that is no surprise since it's produced by the same oxygen molecules as the green aurora. However, the two phenomena are not related. Auroras are formed when charged particles, such as electrons, bombard the Earth’s atmosphere. Airglow is formed through a process called “chemiluminescence” which is when sunlight deposits energy into the atmosphere during the day, some of which is transferred to oxygen molecules. The extra energy causes the oxygen molecules to rip apart into individual oxygen atoms but the atomic oxygen isn’t able to get rid of this excess energy easily and so acts as a 'store' of energy for several hours. Eventually the atomic oxygen does manage to 'recombine,' once again forming molecular oxygen. The molecular oxygen then releases energy, again in the form of light. Several different colors are produced, including a 'bright' green emission. This airglow is present in the atmosphere at all layers, but the region that glows green is typically constrained to a band 53-60 miles high."

So while airglow is not very visible the human eye, it is very visible to long-exposure photography.

Note: this is a composite of 2 panoramas one for the sky and one for the foreground and then blended together. The glow in the center is the light pollution from the town of Winslow, AZ.

Nikon D750 and tamron 15-30 2.8

Two panoramas, one for the sky and one for the crater. 12 vertical photos for each panorama both taken at about 30 mins apart. Combined the two panos in photoshop and then edited colors in lightroom.