Stars Over Wenderholm Stock Photo

The sky was clear when I was heading home from University on Tuesday night so I decided to head a bit further north to see how much of the night sky was visible. I stopped on top of a hill between Waiwera and Wenderholm to be met with this view. A beautiful night with mars and Saturn shining bright beside the constellation Scorpius with the milky way just peaking its head over the horizon. The bright light on the left of the image is due to the light pollution of Waiwera and the headlights of a car driving up the hill (center of the image). The green glow in the air is air-glow. Caused by the ultraviolet light from the sun during the day ionizing oxygen atoms in the atmosphere, when the sun goes down the electrons that broke off the oxygen atoms during the day recombine producing a green glow.