notes.husk.org. scribblings by Paul Mison.

Eastern North Atlantic at Night, from the International Space Station, 28 March 2012. Photograph: André Kuipers. (Posted to Flickr by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, via iamdanw.)

Another image from the Reuters best of the year.

“The natural phenomenon called the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) happened to show up on a clear night when I was taking photographs of the [Eyjafjallajokull] volcano the evening before I left to return to New York. During this assignment some of the more interesting images of the volcano had come at night when I had the ability to take long exposures and get the glow of the lava in the camera. Out of the week I was there, only about 3 or 4 evenings were clear enough to see the mountain at night. This was the last evening and as the ash plume was very high I was excited to take images of the glow of the lava against the ash cloud. The Northern Lights showed up around midnight and only stayed for maybe 30-40 minutes before disappearing. It was extremely exciting to see them and even more exciting to know I was in a position to photograph them. I knew the story had begun to die down but these images would renew a bit of interest in it for another day or so. It’s a rare time when preparation meets the occurrence of something as beautiful as this so it was easily a once in a lifetime experience that I enjoyed.” Canon 5D Mark II, lens 16-35mm (at 16mm), f2.8, 6 s. Photograph: Lucas Jackson.

“Iceland: The Northern Lights above the ash plume of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano” in the Guardian’s 24 hours in pictures. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters.

My biggest kodak moment (by *ice):

What do you call taking a photo of a volcanic eruption together with the Northern lights on a starry night ? “Once in a lifetime opportunity” doesn’t really cover it.