Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights

Nature's handiwork. Beautiful sight!

This is a fire rainbow - the rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena.

The clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20k feet in the air, with just
the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at
precisely 58 degrees.

Notice the temperature

Thanks Praveen

Golden Ray photos of amazing mass migration

Looking like giant leaves floating in the sea thousands of Golden Rays are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico.

The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters.

Gliding silently beneath the waves they turned vast areas of blue water to gold off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Sandra Critelli, an amateur photographer, stumbled across the phenomenon while looking for whale sharks.

She said: "It was an unreal image, very difficult to describe. The surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind.

"It's hard to say exactly how many there were but in the range of a few thousand.

"We were surrounded by them without seeing the edge of the school and we could see many under the water surface too.

"I feel very fortunate I was there in the right place at the right time to experienced nature at his best."

Measuring up to 7ft (2.1 metres) from wing-tip to wing-tip, Golden rays are also more prosaically known as cow nose rays.

They have long, pointed pectoral fins that separate into two lobes in front of their high-domed heads and give them a cow-like appearance.

Despite having poisonous stingers they are known to be shy and non-threatening when in large schools.

The population in the Gulf of Mexico migrates, in schools of as many as 10,000, clockwise from western Florida to the Yucatan.

News source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3345275/Golden-Ray-photos-of-amazing-mass-migration.html

BEAUTIFUL PLACES ON EARTH

Backyard Pool, Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Cappadocia, Turkey

Chandelier Tree, Leggett, California

Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Credit River, Ontario, Canada

Twilight before dawn, Paris, France

Flatt's Harbour, Smith's Parish, Bermuda

Flume covered bridge in autumn, Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire

Glade Creek Grist Mill, Babcock State Park, West Virginia

Gustavia, Saint-Barthelemy, Guadeloupe

Heceta Sunset, Devil's Elbow State Park, Oregon

In amongst the rocks, Goreme, Turkey

Japanese Garden, Washington Park, Portland, Oregon

Legislative Building, Victoria, British Columbia

Rock Tombs, Dalyan, Turkey

Plaza De Cibeles, Madrid, Spain

Niagara Falls at night, Canada

The moon over San Francisco

London Evening, Tower Bridge, England

Sunbeams, Percy Warner Park, Tennessee

Sunrise, Malibu, California

Toronto, Canada

Trinita dei Monti Church, Spanish Steps, Rome, Italy

(Thanks Smitha for pics)