Chasing the Aurora: A Belarussian Astronomer’s Cosmic Alphabet

Chasing the Aurora: A Belarussian Astronomer’s Cosmic Alphabet

“Standing in complete darkness among gravestones, with wolves howling nearby, and a stunning starry sky above us…” recalls astrophotographer Viktar Malyshchyts. The sky has been Viktar’s love since early childhood. For many years, he has not only studied and taught astronomy but also captured breathtaking photographs of the night sky. There’s no better hero for a “cosmic” alphabet in Belarus. Viktar shared his associations with each letter of the word “небакрай” (sky edge), revealing many fascinating insights. For instance, when you can observe the Northern Lights in Belarus, why UFOs “visit” us on Fridays, and why the beetle is the most frightening creature of the night forest.

N – Night

In reality, the night is multicolored. However, our eyes cannot perceive this. When we are in ordinary places in Belarus: in fields, forests, or near rivers, we cannot imagine the beauty around us. Stars across the sky shine in various ways: blue, red, golden, orange. The Milky Way also shimmers with different hues.

Even the sky glows! At night, our Earth is enveloped in a thin green veil. This is the result of a reaction that occurs when atmospheric atoms collide with particles from space. Unfortunately, we cannot see any of this. But a camera can accumulate light, allowing us to show the universe as it truly is. That’s why I photograph the sky.

E – Moon

People often admire our satellite: how beautiful it is, how it adorns the night. But for everyone who observes the stars, the Moon is the main enemy. It is impossible to see anything if there is even a thin crescent of the new moon in the sky.

During a full moon, when the satellite remains in the sky all night, even observatories stop their usual work. These nights are called “service nights”: they repair, check, and adjust the equipment.

All those who study the sky already know the Moon inside and out, so it is not interesting to us. But if you are taking your first steps in astronomy or have just bought a telescope, pay attention to the Moon first. You will be amazed.

Even through the simplest telescope, you can see mountains, craters, “seas,” and “lakes” on the Moon. All the names of the mountains there coincide with those on Earth: you can easily see the Alps, the Caucasus, the Carpathians, and the Pyrenees.

But the seas and lakes on the Moon have unusual names. There is the Sea of Crises, the Sea of Clarity, the Sea of Tranquility, the Sea of Rains, and the Bay of Rainbows. Everyone has heard of Viktar Martinovich’s novel “Lake of Joy.” Martinovich did not invent it – there is a Lake of Joy on the Moon.

Of course, there is no water in the seas and lakes on the Moon, and there never has been. Once, lava flooded large areas on the surface of the satellite. People, seeing these spots, initially thought there was water there.

B – Storm

A storm is not just rain, wind, and lightning. There are also storms in space – magnetic ones. They form after explosions on the Sun. The energy of the explosion is equivalent to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs. A stream of plasma is ejected into space, which can reach Earth and break into the atmosphere. A reaction causes the Aurora Borealis.

Most often, it occurs in the area of the Earth’s poles. But if the plasma stream is very strong, the Northern Lights can be observed even in Belarus. I have photographed it dozens of times and seen it with my own eyes three or four times. In 2015, I saw it even in Minsk – red pillars stood right above my head.

There are plenty of websites that monitor magnetic storms. So if you see that a particularly strong one is predicted for tonight, you can go out of town and observe the sky. Sometimes you see the graph on the monitor suddenly going up, you drop everything and rush to the field to catch the moment. The chances of success are 50-50, but they exist.

A – “A”

“A” is the most popular letter in star names: more than half of them start with it. For example, Altair, Aldebaran, even Alcaid is in the sky. This is because most star names were given by Arabs in ancient times – the East was the center of astronomy development. Thanks to their written treatises, these names have survived to this day.

Now there are companies that, for money, name stars after you. This is charlatanism. Astronomers from around the world have long decided not to give new names to stars. Old names remain, and new ones do not appear. In our galaxy alone, there are 200 billion stars. There is no point in naming each of them. Just like saying that “discovered a star.” Take a larger telescope, see more stars – that’s all.

And companies create their own catalogs of stars and give them names. Only no one, except that company, knows about those catalogs. But people believe and buy.

K – Love

It is hard to find something more romantic in the world than star romance. Going out of town with a girl, turning off the lights, and gazing at the sky. And to show her a specific star, you need to stand close, touch her hand… My students say that the starry sky helps to impress a girl.

But sometimes it turns out the opposite. I teach astronomy electives for students from different schools. There are cases when a girl is fascinated by the sky, and a boy is fascinated by the girl. And for her sake, he begins to delve into astronomy, solves problems, studies, reads additional literature. In the end, he forgets about the girl (because she rejects him), but the love for the stars remains for life.

Or the story may end differently. In our elective, three families were even formed. I even played at one of their weddings. So, one way or another, stars bring people together. Only for some reason, in the case of my wife, star romance did not work – she was indifferent to the sky.

R – Reason

More precisely, extraterrestrial reason. Sometimes people call me, asking me to come with equipment because “a UFO is flying above us, shimmering with different colors.” Such a “UFO” usually appears on Fridays and Saturdays when corporate parties are held. These are Chinese lanterns or balloons with diodes.

For a long time, scientists have been searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. They organized serious projects, defended dissertations, spent a lot of money and time. More than once, it seemed that just a little more – and we will find it.

One of the last cases happened just 10 years ago. An Australian radio telescope began to record unusual pulses. It was a sensation. But scientists were puzzled as to why the pulses occurred only in one place on Earth. It turned out that the matter was in the microwave oven. When the employees of that observatory opened the microwave door without waiting for the timer to end, the radio emission from it created interference on the telescope in the form of short pulses.

So in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, we are at a complete zero. The lack of results has led to strong skepticism in this topic recently.

Yes, the existence of life on Earth is a unique situation for which many factors have come together. But on the other hand, if you multiply the very low probability that all these factors will come together by the number of stars – only in our galaxy there are 200 billion of them… The probability is not zero.