Bright red and purple Aurora Australis video

[alexch]

Hi All,

January 22nd-23rd was another lucky night at Flinders on Mornington Peninsula, bright Aurora going on virtually non-stop the whole night. It was a treat visually too with grey columns of light moving across the southern horison.

Viewing in full screen mode with sound is recommended.

http://vimeo.com/35630244

30 second exposures at f/2.8 and ISO3200 got a lot of colour in and I was surprised to see how much stronger the reds were with modded Sony NEX5 (last segment in the time lapse) compared to standard Nikon D700. The colour balance seems reasonably correct judging by the star colours.

There was very nice purple at the beginning of the night when Aurora was the strongest.

Apparently the colour of the aurora depends on which atom is struck by solar wind, and the altitude of the meeting.

Green - oxygen, up to 150 miles in altitude
Red - oxygen, above 150 miles in altitude
Blue - nitrogen, up to 60 miles in altitude
Purple/violet - nitrogen, above 60 miles in altitude

( from science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/question471.htm (http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/question471.htm) )

Cheers,
Alex

[DavidU]

Wow ! Top stuff Alex

[RobF]

Love the moon rising sequence half way through. Thought it was sunrise at first and wondered how you'd kept the Milky Way visible :lol:

Amazing aurorae. Would be great to see one one day....

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi, Alex.

Thanks for that great view.
Michael Mattiazzo in Castlemaine Victoria aslo captured this one the 22nd.

Cheers,
Justin.

[rat156]

Stunning Alex.

I've been looking for an aurora for the last couple of nights, but no success.

Cheers
Stuart

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Well done Alex. Splendid shots and awesome timelapse. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Masterful as usual Alex. :thumbsup:

[iceman]

Stunning work Alex, beautiful!

[MortonH]

Wonderful pictures!

[Forgey]

Beautiful work Alex

[h0ughy]

OMG that first shot is stunning - once again

[jjjnettie]

:) Top candidate for IIS "Video of the Month".

[Phil Hart]

nice alex! but you're making me look pretty silly for travelling to the other side of the world where aurora is common, but so are the clouds!

great demonstration of the difference between airglow and aurora too :thumbsup:

Phil

[gregbradley]

Fantastic work Alex.

Greg.

[alexch]

Thanks everyone for nice comments! It was my first visual Aurora on January 22nd and I am very thrilled. Two years watching the Aurora forecasts and tools paid off!

[alexch]

Thanks Phil. I am sure the clear weather gods will be kind in to you and you'll come back with some amazing footage. Can't wait to see it.

How are you going with the Dynamic Perception dolly?

Cheers,
Alex

[sheeny]

That's gorgeous Alex! The photos are great for the stars but the video is what does the aurora justice!

Al.

[SkyViking]

Another masterpiece :) That's surely an amazing video, congratulations on capturing this beautiful view so well.

[Phil Hart]

I've unpacked it.. that's a start isn't it? ;)

Been working through a lot of gear issues.. mainly with power supplies and my alt-az mount. getting that under control so the DP dolly should be next!

[CoolhandJo]

Absolutely awesome unique capture! Great skill in this. Well done!

[Paul Haese]

Very nice video Alex. Witnessing this is one of the few remaining things on my wish list. With any luck we will see some in latitudes near Adelaide in the coming year.

[DavidTrap]

Amazing,

I'm going to Victoria in a couple of months for a photography workshop and Hobart for a conference later in the year - both weekends are FULL moon weekends...

Dooh!

DT

[StephenM]

Brilliant stuff Alex!!! Very well done.

Reminds me of the only aurora that I've witnessed, back in 1992 while camping near the summit of Frenchman's Cap in Western Tasmania.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Inmykombi]

Stunning presenatation there Alex.
A truly beautiful sequence.

Well done.

[Ross G]

Amazing captures Alex.

Ross.

[glenc]

Thanks Alex. :thumbsup:

There is an article in the smh about northern "Aurora Chasers"
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/aurora-chasers-find-a-spectacle-thats-heaven-sent-20120127-1qku3.html
http://www.flickr.com/groups/aurorachasers/

[skysurfer]

Amazing vid !
I thought that these northern lights were only visible from higher latitudes (50 degrees and more), which means in the southern hemisphere in Antarctica only.

[mswhin63]

Beautiful shot, I would really love to see one again. I can only vaguely remember seeing one when I was in primary school.

[prokyon]

Wow, awesome! :thumbsup:
Thanks for sharing!

[vicfenech]

Hey Alex, great video... Was this when there was a level 5 forecast earlier in the week??? I thought we could not see an Aurora in Victoria unless it was around an 8 or 9.... i really want to see one during this 11 year peak cycle..

[wysiwyg]

Fantastic stuff Alex!
You have captured it beautifully :thumbsup:

[iceman]

A set of beautiful images and a stunning timelapse.

Nice work Alex, it's now IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au).

[Ric]

Congrats for IOTW Alex.

That is awesome, you've captured something really special there.

Cheers

[stardust steve]

:eyepop::jawdrop: Congrats on IOTW Alex. Inspirational and breathtaking all in one:thumbsup:

[destroyer81]

Wow that is amazing! Great work!

[Ian Cooper]

Good perserverance Alex and a great reward. Interesting to note that you saw no colour visually. This is a sign that the storm that created this display was a weak one. This type of storm was common at the start and end of the last three solar maxima that I have observed from the lower North Island of New Zealand.

I have seen over 50 aurora australis displays since 1978 and most of them have been from my backyard or a similar geo-magnetic latitude.I have seen numerous storms like the one you have photographed Alex, as well as a handful of Great Storms that have passed over my zenith and covered half of the sky.

Skysurfer, it is not your geographic latitude that counts it is your geo-magnetic one that is important. I have attached a map from Cycle 23 on which I have added some of the Geo-Mag Lat of -45 as it passes over New Zealand and Australia. This may not be precisely accurate now as the South Magnetic Pole (and its northern counterparts) are constently on the move, however it shows the point that I am trying to make.

My location is shown as a red square on the North Island at lattitude 40 south, while my Geo Mag Lat is -46, the same as Adelaide, which has a geographic lat of 34 south. What this means is for someone of the same Geo Mag Lat one would expect to see similar types of auroral forms to a similar height. To get an improved view an observer needs to move south by several degrees if possible. For Australians the box seats are in southern Tasmania, the closest land mass to the SMP apart from Antarctica.

I've added just a few of my favourites from Cycle 23. The first was nearly 12 years ago. Using a 28mm lens and Fuji 200 ISO film this is a 45 second exposure. Beautiful colours in a 'staircase' of rays, none of the colour could be seen with the naked-eye though!

A few years later it was really solar max and the colour was there for all to see! This is a shot with a 50 mm lens, a 10 second exposure with Fuji 400 film. It is vital to keep the exposures down to the shortest as possible as the rays move notoiceably in seconds. The brilliant orange colour was just as I saw it. The orange lasted only one minute, and is a blend of the green and red elements on display which you can see in the next shot taken with the 28mm again. This Great Auroral Storm lasted all night (Mar 31st 2011) and almost came around again the next night!

At the end of 2001 I caught another all nighter. We had plenty of rain in the days before the auroral storm so some low lying paddocks made a fine mirror lake for the night when I captured the Pointers & Crux reflecting nicely in a mix of the green arc and red rays.

Later that night I also caught the purple that Alex has found in some of his pictures, except mine came out blue. This is as a result of the earth's tilt, the tallest rays are sticking up above the earths' shadow and the red is being bleached blue in my case. This only happens from the spring equinox through to the autumn equinox. The last two shots are three 28mm ones stacked on top of each other to show how the rays passed through my zenith at one stage. The bottom of the rays were 100 km above the earth over the bottom of the South Island. The top of the rays were possibly a 1,000 km higher leaning north towards me and going beyond me! Only incredibly long comets like Halley in 1910 and Tebbutt in 1861 can compare in size with Great Auroral Storms!!

Having built you up with tales of the recent past, time to bring you back down to earth with a forecast for a grim future. The data for Sunspot Cycle 24 so far shows us that the sun has dropped energy levels on almost every wavelength, comparable to those of 100 or even 200 years ago. This is bad news for would be aurora observers. Most of the activity seen in SSC 24 so far has been viewed from high Geo Mag Lats(Norway, Alaska, Antarctica etc). Observers along the south of Australia as shown on the map attached and N.Z. are at mid latitudes. To see auroae that rise to heights greater than 20 degrees from mid latitudes then the Kp Index needs to be at 6-7 and great storms have Kp's that reach 8-9 for long periods. The chance of seeing such events in this cycle are very slim, but they are even worse for the next cycle.

Patience & perserverance have always been the catch cries for any avid aurora observer in the past, but even more so now!

Cheers

Ian Cooper
North Island Coordinator
Aurora & Solar Section
R.A.S.N.Z.

[Ian Cooper]

Apologies as I put in the wrong pic for Feb 1999. Try this one.

Cheers

Coops

[alexch]

Ian, thanks a lot for a very informative post!

[Stevec35]

Excellent stuff! I love the composition and colour. In fact everything is good.

Cheers

Steve

[zardos123]

All i can do is reiterate the comments above, just bloody fantastic alex, well done and thankyou for posting. you continually up the anti and improve your technique. i really enjoyed this one :thumbsup:
regards brad

[zardos123]

Also, thanks to ian for the informative reply and shots well done

Brad

[Domol]

Thanks Alex
I had a shocking day at the office but after watching your vid about 5 times I'm all relaxed again! Great stuff! Regards Domenic (MPAS)

[shelltree]

WOW! Breathtaking work Alex, such a beautiful sight!

Heading to Tassy in March, would be great if we caught a sight like this while we are there :)

[Regulus]

Alex these are wonderful.
When I first got to Tasmania in the 80's I saw auroras monthly from the north-west coast. It's been a while since I have seen one but this has inspired me to pay more attention.
Thanks - Trevor

[Bassnut]

Excellent capture and production Alex, very smooth. The interpolation worked well. An inspiration.

[hotspur]

Congratulations,on IOTW,very well deserved.Should be IOTY!

Never seen anything quite like this,I never new one could see aurora's from
Australian mainland.

[troypiggo]

Huge congrats!!! Another APOD (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120201.html)!!!

[Paul Haese]

yes congrats on the APOD Alex.

[CoolhandJo]

A well deserved APOD!

[strongmanmike]

Yeeeessss a rather speccy image Alex ol boy ;)

I think we will see that elsewhere over the coming year, kinda special, like Birds Strike..maybe not quite as rare... but visually spectacular :thumbsup:

Mike

[Jen]

:eyepop: wow Alex that is so beautiful i sooooo love your work keep em coming :thumbsup: and congrats on APOD woohoooo :D

[luigi]

Superb images Alex, well deserved APOD, congratulations and hats off mate!

[iceman]

Congrats on the APOD! Quite a roll you're on lately! Well done!

[Liz]

Spectacular!!! :thumbsup:

[ZeroID]

Hey, just Wow ! ........ Just Wow !
Absolutely stunning, going to have to go home and stick it up on the big screen. That is just amazing to see and beautifully captured.
Thank you so much Alex, I will probably never get to see it in person but that was just the next best thing ever.

[danielsun]

Wow Alex, Firstly to see an Aurora is one thing and to capture it the way you have is awesome!
Stunning work as always.:thumbsup:

Cheers Daniel.

[Adelastro1]

Fantastic shots and videos once again Alex! The colours are amazing. Well done on the APOD.
The last one I saw was in about 1990 here in Adelaide.
Looks like I might have to start chasing them too now! Can't let you and Phil have all the fun! haha.

[coldknights]

Hi if you need the Adaptor cable to go from the mx2 to a orion teletrack let me know i make them.( TERAND ADAPTOR )
And the stop switchs as well.
Check them out.below

http://forum.timescapes.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=5406&start=20


http://forum.timescapes.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=5406