The light portal to the Universe is ready
Most likely you see in this image Luke Skywalker, hidden in the building with his light-sword. Or some of you see the light portal to the Universe. Where in New Zealand can you find this portal? Let’s visit very small village Lauder in Central Otago. Even dozens kilometres from that, you can see very strong green ray erected up to the Universe. Well, some local people wittily think it is an UFO or at least some secret base sending signal to the aliens. And with the buldozer in front of the building it seems like the portal had been switched on just a moments ago. Well, the answer is, of course, much more sophisticated. The green beam is very powerful LIDAR – complex of lasers measuring the ozone layer above the NIWA atmospheric research station. The beam, actually, doesn’t shine from the building you see, but over that. Building itself is brand new dome with BOOTES telescope, which – as its 3 “brothers” in China, Mexico and Spain – will detect short optical afterglow of distant gamma-ray bursts. Amazing conditions far away from cities allow to see beautiful Milky way and also capture strong luminescating of the atmosphere itself (the redish and green waves above the horizon all around in the sky). But it seems like from some science-fiction movie anyway, right? The image was captured from Lauder on 28th September 2014; used Canon 6D, Samyang 24 mm, f2, ISO 8000, 43×15 s panorama, tripod.
