View From The Top

[CapturingTheNight]

Hi all,

Aurora Australis from "The Hump" Mt Buffalo National Park, Victoria. Australia. 29/06/2013

When the Kp Index hit 7 yesterday afternoon I immediately grabbed my gear and headed south looking for clear skies. I was going to head to The Winton Wetlands again but as I was approaching the turn off to the Victorian Alps a gut feeling about fog affecting my planned location made me turn off and head into the hills. The temperature was below freezing and the ice and small patches of snow made the going very slippery on the walk up to one of the highest points in the park, but when this is dancing on the horizon it is easy to forget about the cold.

142749

Cheers

Greg

[Larryp]

Beautiful shot, Greg!

[Forgey]

Beautiful Greg, was well worth it.

[Paul Haese]

Nice Greg, The foreground is really nice there.

[iceman]

Stunning!

[gregbradley]

Gee whiz, that is so so good!

Wow, I am amazed. You should be proud of that one.

Greg.

[matt34]

Awesome work Greg. The colour is amazing. Are they 30sec exposures or longer? What ISO are you using to help get all that vibrant colour?

[carl37]

Awesome Greg!!

It always amazes me that you seem to get more colour and definition up there than we do at Flinders on the south coast.

I guess it's the altitude?!

[h0ughy]

how nice is that!!?

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much for the great feedback everyone :D Just thirty seconds and 3200 Matt



This was a very brief outburst which only lasted a couple of minutes just after 7pm Carl, after that it settled down to what you captured from Flinders. The cleaner air at altitude could have a bit of an effect. At sea level and along the coast you may have things like light sea mist to image through.
For my own curiosity I crunched some numbers and for me at about 1600 meters above sea level I get a horizon line about 142km away (this all assumes that the earth is completely round and the horizon is at sea level though.........which it isn't), whereas at say 10m above sea level the horizon line is 11.3 km away. So in effect by going to that altitude I am bringing my view to an equivalent view at about Taralgon directly to the south (assuming that Taralgon is at sea level....... which it isn't)

[matt34]

Thank for the info Greg. Being new to the aurora chasing/forecasting sites. Is my understanding correct that if Kp index like in the bottom center graph here http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html that is what's happened? I only remembered to check bout 9pm Saturday night & thought the active part has been. From what you mentioned it was brightest with a burst about 7.

[Ross G]

Beautiful capture Greg.

Such intense colour!

Ross.

[spacezebra]

Greg, your images are stunning - you continue to delight and amaze.

Cheers Petra d.

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much Petra and Ross :D



Yeah that is the K index plot. It is one of the things to look at when aurora chasing. I have a little blog post which might help a bit Matt http://www.capturingthenight.com/aurora-chasing/

[schmikko]

Love the shot Greg. The colours in this are fantastic.

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you so much Michael :D

[matt34]

Thanks Greg for the info. I was tossing up to make the trip south last night, didn't go in the end as there was no reports visible from Vic and the kp index was hovering around 4

[ourkind]

Very nice Greg! Top shot! in more ways than one :thumbsup:

[CapturingTheNight]

Thank you very much Carlos :D