aurora is progress

[davidpretorius]

hi guys, gotta run, heart is pumping, there is an aurora in progress down here in tassie. i will se what the toucam can capture and get back to you

[Orion]

What did you get!, what did you get!

[davidpretorius]

i am one lucky fella

i have tried 2 sec exposure with modded toucam, 10 secs, 20 seconds.

here is one i grabbed just to put up on forum, will obviously be sorting through 50 to 100 images

no real colours, white with the naked eye, but the whole southern sky from say 0 to 45 degress and 90 to 120 degress wide at times

the toucam got some images as green though

[ballaratdragons]

Dave, is it still happening or is it all over?

Great shot!!

[davidpretorius]

still going ken!

[ballaratdragons]

I can't see anything coz we is clouded in AGAIN!!!!

Get some good shots for us! Video would be nice.

[davidpretorius]

All finished now!

Didn't get video, as was mainly playing with longer exposure. When i read Ken's video request, ran back outside, but to no avail

Here is another one. A lot of the shots with auto set up on toucam and then using the long exposure didn't come out well.

Here is another one, sorry about the pixels

[robin]

Hi David, i snapped this from Warrnambool between the cloudbreaks.Its a quick snap of 30 secs & iso 400 @ f5.6 thru a 20mm lens.
I reckon its the aurora...what do you think?
Quickly processed with NEAT IMAGE & Photoshop6

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/makemineameade/Aurora1.jpg

[davidpretorius]

yes robin, i reckon you caught it!

Now did i say "all finished now". wife arrived home and i said, did you see the aurora, gee it was good earlier tonight, but still there might be some still there! She said no, so we go outside and the sky was literally on fire!!

Brother drives up as i am busily getting the toucam set up and i start trying to get video, no good really, back to longer exposure. Whilst I am setting up laptop and camera, my brother says, "can you get this on camera?" i said "what?" looking up from laptop screen

This is the only way i know how to describe it:

look at the southern celestial pole. 180 degrees in RA around is red and white and touches of green pillars of light. To about 70 degrees dec. Then things got interesting. We are now talking 200+ degrees wide and 120 degrees over and behind my head!!!!

then waves bursts of light run up the pillars. it seems to come to a point like a big teardrop. the sides curving up from east and west and then coming to that point say 120 degrees from south over my head ie north!!!

no way long exposure could catch the sub second changes.

literally hang on for the ride.

I do not think I shall see such a spectacle again and i am rather sad that my favourite little toucam was not up to the job so i could share with you all!

[asimov]

WOW Mate!!! I wish I was there to see that! Pretty speccy!

[RAJAH235]

Nice work Davo. What can you say but, SPECTACULAR! Wish we there. :D L.

[davidpretorius]

yes mate, i keep ducking out just to see if it will fire up again!

once in a lifetime. it is funny what you think of, i remember thinking what is asimovs and ken's mobile numbers?

[iceman]

Sometimes (only sometimes) I wished I lived down there, to see these aurora.

Nice shots with the ToUcam Dave (especially the last one), but you really need a digicam with long exposure to capture the beauty without the noise and hotpixels.

Sounds like a heart pumping night.

[gaa_ian]

Good on you guys ..
Makes me want to visit the deep south too ... :cold:
Robin ... you should submit that shot to spaceweather.com they have a great Aurora gallery, would be good to see a classic Aussie shot in there complete with Verandah. :thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

congratualtions David. :thumbsup: Its sounds like one of those events that you tell over and over to your grandkids and great grand kids one day. I'm very envious. Myabe one day if I move to NZ :P

[acropolite]

Paul wrote Try Tasmania it's closer...:tasdevil:

I caught it earlier in the evening (9:30) but didn't check again later; still the show was very spectacular....:D

[[1ponders]]

:cold: Family connections :shrug:

[Robby]

There were some good piccies coming out of Nelson & Invercargill last night with this aurora. Was cloudy here (as usual)

[gaa_ian]

:cold: ...you know us Territorians, anything below 15deg is freezing :scared2:

[dhumpie]

Very very nice. Wish we had aurora's up here in Queensland :) Never seen one before....

Darren

[MiG]

It seems that whenever I get a timely aurora at high latitudes alert the weather is cloudy. This happened multiple times during the crazy aurora period a year or two ago.

[atalas]

Nice Dave thanks for posting the shots !


Louie :thumbsup:

[acropolite]

Didn't have much time to post this morning, but I saw a similar spectacle back in the 80's. I was out in the country with very dark skies and driving north and the aurora was still visible and spectacular even through the car window facing north. The colours were simply amazing; I can understand Dave's excitement.

[fringe_dweller]

yep well done Dave and Robin :thumbsup: I was to busy to go out to darksite and saw the Bz go north and thought it was over. went to dark local park in the e/n/e suburbs of Adelaide in base of foothills for a usual night walk - lo and behold get out of car wow - aurora! missus and i watched for 45 minutes from 10 pm thin tall rays and very faint curtains up to 30-40º at times with occasional long lasting diffuse red/rosy/pink patches in the se - constant glows in wide 60º azimuth cut off in s/w west by full on lp of adders. In 9 years of walking at night in these areas - never seen anything like it! saw two nice shooters in the mix too - a nice surprise attempted walk in the park indeed! was still going when we left.
Kearn

[robin]

Ive reprocessed my shot.Here it is again but looking nicer.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/makemineameade/Aurora1.jpg

[davidpretorius]

very nice robin!

[iceman]

Beautiful Robin, nice shot!

If you don't mind, can you please arrange an aurora when we stay at your place in October? I've never seen one and would love it.

[gaa_ian]

Hey Robin ... spaceweather.com have started an August Aurora Gallery :thumbsup:
Dont let our Seppo mates take all the attention in the Aurora gallery ...send yours in too, its dead easy to do.
http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01aug05.htm
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ....Oi Oi Oi. :cool:

[robin]

Thanks everyone.The aurora was only visible for a short while because it was fairly cloudy.I read Davids 'aurora in progress' post, raced outside & sure enough, the clouds had momentarily parted & there it was.They're not commonly seen here but spectacular when they are.
Mike,I'll do my best to organise an aurora for you & the family!No promises!

[RAJAH235]

Nice shots Davo. This was taken by our intrepid Solar Observer/Aurora chaser, Dave Finlay,from the Southern Highlands area. (Robertson/Moss Vale). Time was around 10.45 pm. No details avail. (see below).....
He sent this around to the W.A.A.C.ers earlier today. Shows how far north it was visible. Pity he didn't tell US about it tho...would've liked to have seen it first hand...... :D L.
ps. Here's the relevant 'shooting type' info just recieved from the guru himself..... 56 x 30 sec exposures, iso1600, f2.8 @ 17 mm (x 1.3), CANON 1D MkII.
Dave also gave this link, >
http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01aug05_page2.htm

[davidpretorius]

that is a lovely shot, thanks rajah

[gaa_ian]

Good on you David & Robin ....
Great to see you have published your Images on Spaceweather.com .... right up there with the best in the world :thumbsup:

[RAJAH235]

'Shooting type' info added to previous post..... Dave just sent it. :thumbsup: :D L.

[iceman]

Really great shot, 56 shots! That's some work :)

Get him to sign up, Loz!