ZEN

I named this shot 'Zen'.
My favorite shot of red sprites yet.
Why Zen?
Because it encapsulates everything I love about night sky photography that came together in one zen-like moment in the dark.

The pitch black desert nightscape devoid of light pollution.
The Milky Way arching above the scene, with an extremely active storm updraft bubbling away in the distance. The green airglow glowing at the edge of space, reminding us that the Earth has an atmosphere that makes life here possible. And of course, the stunning red sprites that fired over a huge lightning strike deep within the storm system.
Not just any red sprites, though. Red sprites that are seemingly connected to the storm cloud below by a curious chord-like trunk.
But this is, in fact, what is referred to as a troll. Another transient luminous event that would have been just milliseconds after the sprite, reaching up from the atmosphere above the clouds and into the footprint of the previous excitation.
This looks like the stuff born of imagination. So remarkable that it seems impossible to be true.
But it was a real moment in our amazing atmosphere.
I hope you enjoy this moment of zen with me. 

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