These photographs show a noctilucent cloud about 50 miles high up in the mesosphere taken at about 12:30 a.m. July 20 from a 7th floor balcony at Princeton Towers. It was taken facing 330 degrees northwest using a four-second exposure ISO 1600 with a Canon PowerShot SX10 on a tripod. Noctilucent clouds were first observed in 1885 by an amateur astronomer. No observations of anything resembling noctilucent clouds before that time has ever been found. At temperatures around minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, dust blowing up from below or falling into the atmosphere from space provides a resting spot for water vapour to condense and freeze. Right now, during the northern hemisphere’s summer, the atmosphere is heating up and expanding. At the outside edge of the atmosphere, that actually means that it’s getting colder because it’s pushed farther out into space. They are most often seen when they appear against the backdrop of deep evening twilights. Noctilucent cloud season is almost over. It runs from May through early August.