It's been a lousy season for the aurora, but a recent solar storm set the sky alight last night in one of the best displays I've seen in years. Even before the sky was fully dark, there were curtains of green sweeping across the dusky blue. By 11 when I made it down onto the ice of the creek below my cabin there were bright curtains of aurora overhead.
Some displays are almost static with little motion. Others, like last night were constantly shifting, moving fast. That made it basically impossible to capture the shape of the aurora, but the colors were vivid. Green with highlights of red and purple and bright stars in the background.
Nights like that make me very happy I live in Fairbanks.
Amazing, lovely, moving photos. Nice to almost experience the beauty. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteFab photos, Dave! Makes me very sad that I don't live in Fairbanks anymore!
ReplyDeleteHow do you capture night photos like that?
ReplyDeleteBig Mike: Night photography is actually fairly straight forward. You need a tripod and a camera that you can manually control. Long exposures are mandatory, these were 15-20 seconds in length. Focusing can also be a bit problematic since there is not enough light for the camera to auto-focus. I set my focus manually to infinity, and then adjust as necessary by reviewing the image on the camera's LCD. Bright, fast lenses help too, though this one, (a Canon 17-40 f4) is not terribly fast. The best way to learn is to go out on a clear night with your tripod and camera and practice. Good luck!
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