Tag Archives: Northern Lights

Watch For Polar Expeditions Features Northern Lights Coating

Saint-Petersburg, Russia. April 2024. Raketa Polar – a watch created specially for polar expeditions – is back in Raketa’s permanent collection with a new design.

The journey beyond the polar circle is thorny and difficult: it requires great strength and long distances travelled in extreme conditions, both by land and sea. Following its long tradition of making watches for polar explorers, Raketa has developed a model for people who are ready to set out to conquer these boundless spaces.

The 24-hour dial is essential for time-reading beyond the polar circles where polar day and polar night can last for up to 6 months each. Six lines divide the perimeter of the dial into 6 quarters (4 hours each) allowing each crewmember to keep count of his watches/shifts during maritime expeditions. Another unique feature of the dial is the special Superluminova coating that reminds northern lights. It covers the entire surface of the dial and hands, ensuring perfect legibility even in total polar darkness.

The solid and robust case, with straight facets and sharp angles, is particularly adapted to the rigours of polar expeditions. The design of this case is harmoniously completed with a stainless-steel bracelet emphasising the masculine character of this timepiece.

The rotating bezel is engraved and enamelled with the name of all the Arctic ocean seas and their respective time zones, which allows using the GMT function. This 24-hour watch with a rotating bezel can be also used as a solar compass both in the northern and southern hemispheres.

The back of the watch reveals the beautifully decorated automatic movement which is entirely produced by the Raketa Watch Factory in Saint-Petersburg. The finishing of the rotor is reminiscent of northern lights.

Each Raketa Polar watch has a certificate confirming its technical fitness for use in the harshest natural conditions of polar regions. The certificate is issued within the frame of the “Arctic voluntary certification system” by the Nizhny Novgorod Testing Centre.

The price

The cost of the watch is 2.000 EUR (VAT included)/ $2,930 CAD. For the comfort of our customers, Raketa watches are delivered worldwide free of charge by DHL directly up to their front door.

Specifications

Factory:Raketa Watch Factory (Saint-Petersburg)
Movement:
Calibre:2624A
Functions:Automatic
Number of jewels:24
Testing positions:4
Average rate (s/d):-10+20
Average running time (h):40
Frequency/hour:18.000 / 2.5Hz
Bi-directional automatic windingYes
Stopper of self-winding unit activated during manual winding:Yes
Decoration:Polar lights
Case:
Material:Stainless steel
Size:41,6 mm
Front glass:Sapphire 
Back glass:Sapphire 
Rotating bezel:Yes
Crown:Screwed-in crown
Water resistance:20 АТМ
Hands:Superluminova
Dial:Superluminova
Strap/bracelet:
Material:Stainless steel bracelet
Width:22 mm
Sex:Male

Strange Lights May Have Been UFO Over Southern Ontario

At approximately 10:15 PM EDT on March 17th I witnessed a strange sight. While driving into Simcoe, Ontario  via Hillcrest Road, something low on the horizon caught my attention. At first I wondered if this was a planet but after I pulled the car over to the side of the road and focused harder, it became clear that this object was flashing through a whole spectrum of colours:  red, blue, yellow, white one at a time at a high rate. Strange lights?

Predicted Solar Storm Aura

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day and skywatchers were made aware of the forecasted Solar Storm that brought Northern Lights much further south than normal. This was not the Northern Lights.

I wasn’t able to take any video because my camera phone would not zoom in to capture the object but I did manage to zoom in using the photo feature. Today I moved the photo’s onto my laptop and zoomed in further using a video editing program. I then re-opened those photo’s and used the desharp/enhance/deinterlace feature in gimp software to attempt a better look at what I saw. I am still surprised by the results- the colours that I saw vividly and clearly did not show up on the photographs and the photographs reveal what looks like a shape-shifting object!

I’ve been so intrigued by this I decided to return to sighting location so I could take a daytime photo of the sky/horizon where I had the sighting and I used my phone to get a compass reading on the direction of where the object was.

Daytime Sighting Location Compass Heading for Sighting

The first series of photo’s- shown below are the camera-zoomed in series and are unenhanced by software. The second series of  single photo’s are the software-zoomed in and enhanced versions of the first four photographs .  I’m hoping someone can offer up ideas on what I saw by commenting below or emailing The Silo (contentproducer@thesilo.ca)  *name with held by request*

Series 1

Unidentified Flying Object Simcoe OntarioSeries 2- Enhanced UFO image 1Enhanced Image 2Enhanced Image 3Enhanced Image 4

 

Supplemental- Severe Solar storm forecast predicts Northern Lights much further South than normal http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/03/17/solar-geomagnetic-storm/24901903/

Virtual visit: Hillcrest Road, Simcoe, ON