Mandalay Dream (WA)

[colinmlegg]

The aurora gods were kind last Friday morning. I was down south shooting the conjunction of Moon and Venus and not expecting aurora activity. The sun had unleashed an X4 flare a couple of days earlier, but from the east limb, so Earth wasn't in the firing line. Or so they thought! :)

My location was off the grid, so I had no idea what was happening, but decided to deploy a south facing camera just in case. I'm glad I did! Kp 6 activity erupted around 3 am WST and was strong until sunrise. :)

First shot is from onset, around 3:08 am and 2nd at 4:16. Amazing colour variation.

Mandalay Beach, WA, 35 S, 27/28 Feb 2014

14mm, iso 3200, f/2.8, 30 s

[Octane]

So very beautiful. :)

As usual, glorious processing.

H

[Rod771]

That is so amazing!

Very good "just in case" preparation. Certainly paid off.

Well done Colin :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Wow, cool, excellent capture Colin

Mike

[iceman]

Beautiful as usual Colin. Strong colours!

[Saturn%5]

Very nice colour in both Colin well done.

[h0ughy]

wow how lucky and cool is that, well scratch lucky as you planned to image that direction ;) Some clever work that's for sure

[Larryp]

Beautiful!

[gregbradley]

You lucky so and so! Awesome.

Greg.

[colinmlegg]

Thanks guys. I guess I should have mentioned the dozen or so chases that came up empty handed. Can be brutal but worth it when she goes off! :)

[Antu]

Wow... the colors are simply superb ! Amazing image, Colin :thumbsup:

[dutch2]

Just stunning images.
Great job, well done.:thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Very nice Colin, right place right time. Well done. :thumbsup:

[Derek Klepp]

Colin great pics and worth all the empty hands.

[SkyViking]

What a fantastic view, you've really captured the glow in that scene :thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Stunning images for sure, and from Perth, coool :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[colinmlegg]

Thanks again guys.



Lol, yes my backyward... although I should keep a tally of the distance traveled, including failed attempts! :)

[ourkind]

Beautiful work Colin!

Can you explain or confirm if the reason why most if not all of the aurora lights photographed from Australia are orange, red, purple due to the distance of the auroral activity far in the horiszon? Not sure if I explain myself correctly but the same reason the sun and moon are orange when rising and setting over the horizon?

[Octane]

Carlos,

I think it's due to us being at a latitude where we see the high-energy to low-energy particle shift.

In the northern latitudes they mainly see the high energy particles.

H

[colinmlegg]

Thanks Carlos. Reds usually appear in the higher reaches of the auroral oval and green lower down. We see more red because the green section is usually hidden below the horizon from our latitudes. When activity is strong, Kp6+, the oval expands north and we start to see green on the horizon. Tassie commonly see green around Kp5 being closer to the magnetic pole.

The different colours are due to different ionization states. From wikipedia -

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Auroral colors[edit]
Red: At the highest altitudes, excited atomic oxygen emits at 630.0 nm (red); low concentration of atoms and lower sensitivity of eyes at this wavelength make this color visible only under some circumstances with more intense solar activity. The low amount of oxygen atoms and their very gradually diminishing concentration is responsible for the faint, gradual appearance of the top parts of the "curtains".
Green: At lower altitudes the more frequent collisions suppress this mode and the 557.7 nm emission (green) dominates; fairly high concentration of atomic oxygen and higher eye sensitivity in green make green auroras the most common. The excited molecular nitrogen (atomic nitrogen being rare due to high stability of the N2 molecule) plays its role here as well, as it can transfer energy by collision to an oxygen atom, which then radiates it away at the green wavelength. (Red and green can also mix together to pink or yellow hues.) The rapid decrease of concentration of atomic oxygen below about 100 km is responsible for the abrupt-looking end of the bottom parts of the curtains.
Yellow and pink are a mix of red and green.
Blue: At yet lower altitudes atomic oxygen is not common anymore, and ionized molecular nitrogen takes over in visible light emission; it radiates at a large number of wavelengths in both red and blue parts of the spectrum, with 428 nm (blue) being dominant. Blue and purple emissions, typically at the bottoms of the "curtains", show up at the highest levels of solar activity.[12]
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[ourkind]

[QUOTE=colinmlegg;1065767]Thanks Carlos. Reds usually appear ...QUOTE]


Hi Colin, thank you very much for the explanation, that makes sense! :thumbsup:

[prokyon]

Wow, stunning images! Would be nice to see a higher resolution. :rolleyes:

[JamesG]

So good Colin!

[dutch2]

Fantastic images, well done.
:thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Scorchers, how keool is thems auroras :thumbsup: :thumbsup: excellant