Mysteries, Chemtrails, Aerosols :: Mysterious NZ

[lyra]

Its been a great morning to view "normal" contrails. With Auckland airport closed with fog there seems to be a lot of planes in holding pattern over the city and I've had the chance to take some good photos. These trails are quite different to the one's seen earlier in the year in that they dissipate quickly.

[Colin]

Hi Lyra,

I've been out this morning and I've seen them too. I didn't know that the airport was closed but have seen the planes and some amazing normal contrails tracing big curves over the city.

[lyra]

Hi Colin.. I heard on the radio that fog had stopped a lot of the international flights this morning... seems to be clearing up now... It was a good chance to practice taking photos.... especially through a pair of binoculars which was the tricky part....

[joan]

Hi Lyra and Colin,

We've been watching these trails too. At 8.45 I took photos of one plane curving from West to East, then at 10.45 looked out again and we saw 2 planes going in opposite directions, looping up quite high and round again. They are thin white trails and don't linger. Could see the plane clearly and took photos. As of now there is still one flying towards the west -
Joan

[Bloodhound]

Im watching the exact same thing over on the north shore

comon guys, i dont think these are contails :) just low dosage chemtrails :D

[Carus]

I'm looking forward to seeing the photos. The conditions must have being right for contrails....sounds like an unusual event with all the planes circling.
I wish I'd seen it.

[Jean]

Hi everyone

I didn't see the contrails today - had my head down at work! :) But coming home tonight on the Southern Motorway at sunset the clouds were wispy and very much like dissipating contrails. At that hour the sky was quite beautiful with lots of pinks and greys. I watched the sun coming up this morning too and it was beautiful as well, with the city blanketed in fog with just a few tall trees and the city buildings poking through. Then on the horizon a bank of cumulus clouds, pink round the edges and the sun coming up behind them. They looked like they were lit up electrically. At that hour I didn't see any contrails and by the time I got to work the fog had closed in and I couldn't see any sky at all. I've got into the habit of watching the sky in the mornings and evenings as I dawdle with the traffic on the motorways getting to work or home and I often see contrails usually above the ordinary clouds and going in a different direction. :)

[Melody Anderson]

The big curves sound pretty amazing. I suppose I don't have to ask you why you didn't get a couple of shots with your phone camera, Colin?! :?

Like your idea Lyra of taking photos through binoculars :D Very inventive!

I have approved Joan's photos. She had some trouble with the autofocus apparently, so these are just the ones that turned out. Look like fairly standard normal contrails to me, one with a little curly tail on it.

Bloodhound, I'm afraid it sounds a little like these trails were the normal expected quickly dissipating trails you are likely to see in winter under the right conditions. Although not having seen the big circles or some of the others, I don't have the evidence of my own eyes.

I think we have to keep some sense of perspective here. What we are calling chemtrails are readily identifiable by certain very distinctive characteristics. We have to be very diligent here to call a spade a spade, call a contrail a contrail, and a chemtrail a chemtrail. If we are to be taken seriously here, we must be able to recognise and acknowledge what is normal and what is unusual and not be too quick to attach significance to things that don't warrant it.

Lyra made a very good point that it was a great opportunity to observe, recognise and remember what normal contrails look like. The huge pluming persistent ones going from horizon to horizon we spotted earlier in the year were certainly an unusual sight and one we weren't used to seeing here in Auckland. Undoubtedly there was something unusual in them. Let's just realise that crying wolf doesn't ultimately do the cause any good.

[John Anderson]

Hi all,

People from out of Auckland may wonder why we're making such a deal of a few contrails over the city. Well it's because they’re an unusual sight over this particular city.

Genuine commercial flights over Auckland at a height necessary to produce trails should be rare and an examination of international destinations will show why. Most inbound flights into New Zealand are to Auckland and of course will be at a very low altitude when approaching or leaving the city. So any trails we see will be from overflights. This rules out domestic flights totally and as far as I know should only apply to flights direct to and from Christchurch from and to overseas destinations that require them to fly over Auckland.

Given that commercial flights generally fly in a straight line between point of embarkation and destination, this means that North/South overflights must come from or be going to Alaska or Siberia. :? There are also the roughly East/West overflights also that head out into or come in from the Southern Pacific. These would seem to be flights between Melbourne and Chile (would they have enough fuel?). However given the curvature of the Earth and my amateurish chart navigation skills, this all could be totally wrong and I will soon be corrected by those with a better grasp of such stuff. :D

So most residents have never ever seen a persistent trail in this part of the country and when it happens it’s cause for some degree of wonder and comment. This is especially so during summer when it should be impossible for persistent trails to form… :shock: