A Phoenix Aurora over Iceland

All of the other aurora watchers had gone home. By 3:30 am in Iceland , on a quiet night last September, much of that night's auroras had died down. Suddenly though, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the Earth's atmosphere once again. This time, unexpectedly, pareidolia cally, they created an amazing shape reminiscent of a giant phoenix . With camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately by a third of the land. The mountain in the background is Helgafell , while the small foreground river is called Kald, both located about 30 kilometers north of Iceland's capital Reykjavik . Seasoned skywatchers will note that just above the mountain, toward the left, is the constellation of Orion , while the Pleiades star cluster is also visible just above the frame center. The new aurora lasted only a minute and would be gone forever -- possibly dismissed as an embellished aberration -- were it not captured in the featured, digitally-composed, image mosaic .