What the Aurora Really Looks Like

[Phil Hart]

This video has been an unreasonably time consuming project!

https://vimeo.com/132415929

After my Aurora Adventures in Canada's Yukon Territory in 2012, I was fortunate to see paintings of the aurora made by Danish painter Harald Moltke in Copenhagen. Between 1899-1901 Moltke was part of three science expeditions to Finland and Iceland to study the aurora. Moltke was hired by the Danish Meteorological Institute (BMI) to reproduce and convey the colours and forms of the aurora through his paintings. They have since become the most valuable and enduring result of those early science expeditions.

Unbiased by colour photographs, the first of which only appeared fifty years later, Moltke's paintings faithfully record the colours of the aurora as seen by the human eye. Inspired by these paintings, and the biography of Harald Moltke by former DMI researcher Peter Stauning, I have reprocessed the footage of the aurora I captured in the Yukon Territory in an attempt (admittedly impossible) to show the aurora as it appears to the eye.

So there are two key messages about how the aurora is presented in this video:


All of the digital imagery is animated and played back in real-time (with frame interpolation which does introduce some artefacts).
Colours have been de-saturated to match the visual appearance.


There's more info on my site:

http://philhart.com/what-the-aurora-really-looks-like

And Phil Plait has included it in his Bad Astronomy (http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/10/22/aurora_two_videos_of_the_northern_l ights.html) blog.

Because it's real-time you need to be patient but if you can stick around for the second half you'll get some idea of what it's like to stand under an aurora storm. But remember you can't just travel for three days and expect to book it in at 8pm each night like a theatre show!

Now that this project is finished, I'm allowing myself to start work on observatory construction at my Mount Glasgow home (especially now that I am working in Ballarat). It will probably be another three years before that is finished! :)

Thanks for watching!

Phil

[Kunama]

Excellent work !!
I grew up in Finland and saw the aurora on countless occasions under totally dark skies in central Finland, this brings back to me those times.

[Tinderboxsky]

Yes, truely excellent work. Thanks for sharing.
To me this imagery is stunning in it's natural beauty and vastly more appealing than those with highly exaggerated and saturated colours.

Cheers

Steve

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Matt! Aurora can be a nuisance if you live there, but for me not so much! :)



Thanks Steve. I'd love to be back with the latest cameras and capture closer to real-time - this footage is three years old with 5D II. There's a lot more footage coming out now in close to real-time but mostly very saturated.

[Octane]

That was remarkable, Phil. Absolutely loved it.

Look forward to sharing with the wifey to convince her for a trip up north!

H

[mbaddah]

Phil that was fantastic, both the video and blog. Very informative.

[Phil Hart]

Thanks H for the high praise. Hope it does the trick.. just make sure you have plenty of other good things planned in case the weather doesn't work out!



Thanks mbaddah - appreciate the comment!

Phil

[Derek Klepp]

Spectacular Phil and. Great body of work.It would be good to have such a video running along side an exhibition of the Paintings.As one who has never seen an Aurora it only inspires one to want to see it for real.

[andyc]

Beautiful video Phil. Vividly takes me back to nights under the lights in Iceland and Scotland. The viewing of the narrow crowning aurora by the Plough is almost identical to one I memorably had the pleasure of enjoying from a village in southeast Iceland. Thanks for the view!

[Bassnut]

Thats a thoughtfull, realistic, and informative effort Phil, well worth a patient view. And you managed to make it look like art, bonus.

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Derek! If you line up the exhibition I'll bring the video :P



Pleased to be able to bring back memories. Every aurora is unique but there are many forms that seem familiar!



Thanks Fred! The camera was sitting on your machine for a couple of the key sequences here!

[Phoenix]

Wonderfully done Phil - I've watched it a few times now and it gets better with age! Impressed the wife to, which is normally a hard task to accomplish. I'm An amazing effort - Thank you Phil.

Cheers Steve

[Somnium]

a stunning piece of art and history, thanks for sharing !

[Regulus]

I loved this. thank you.
I have posted the link to your page on the Aurora Tasmania FB page and I hope you don't mind that (happy to remove it if you do).
https://www.facebook.com/groups/auroraaustralis/?fref=ts

Trevor

[RickS]

Thanks, Phil. Very much like the real thing without the cold hands and ears :)

[rally]

I am enlightened - great work by all Moltke, Hart and Mother nature.
Thanks so much Phil.

[Phil Hart]

Thanks Steve & Somnium. I think it's worth watching a few times too but I'm biased :-)



Thanks for sharing Trevor!



Very pleased you think it looks legit!



Thanks. I think you got the credits right :-)

[ChrisM]

Phil - that's a fine recreation with a very realistic result. Excellent work!
Chris

[batema]

Beautiful. I so want to see this in real life.

Mark

[gary]

Fabulous piece of work. A real labour of love. A wonderful educational
resource. Thank you for contributing this to the Internet.