Aurora Borealis from Tromso

RickS (Rick) · #1 05-02-2012, 07:55 AM

One I get home I'll compile something better, but in the meantime here's a taste of the auroral display we had in Tromso (Norway) on the evening of 30 January.

This is a time lapse sequence composed of 10 second exposures with my Nikon D700 at ISO 1600. The lens was a 14-24 zoom at 14mm and f/2.8. The pictures were taken from a soccer field.

Video here: http://rickstevenson.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Aurora-Videos/21327061_8pRnSW#!i=1698449433&k=66F dMmN&lb=1&s=A

Cheers,
Rick.

sheeny (Al) · #2 05-02-2012, 07:59 AM

Awesome Rick!

Al.

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #3 05-02-2012, 08:01 AM

Superb Rick. Growing up with this, I wonder how many northern Scandinavian people really appreciate how remarkably special it is to be able to see this out their back doors.

gregbradley · #4 05-02-2012, 09:16 AM

Fantastic Rick.

Greg.

h0ughy (David) · #5 05-02-2012, 09:35 AM

brilliant - its one thing on my bucket list to see

StephenM (Stephen) · #6 05-02-2012, 10:16 AM

Wow! Great timelapse Rick! Must have been great to see!

Cheers,
Stephen

Kevnool (Kev) · #7 05-02-2012, 11:05 AM

Superb Rick.
So gracefull.

Cheers

DavidTrap (David) · #8 05-02-2012, 12:01 PM

Very impressive Rick - can you describe the naked eye view of this? How much colour is visible?

Looking forward to seeing the finished time-lapse.

DT

Lester · #9 05-02-2012, 01:30 PM

Wonderful view Rick. How far out of the FOV did the display go? Looks like you could have done with a wider FOV.

gary · #10 05-02-2012, 03:53 PM

Hi Rick,

The video looks jaw droppingly good!

Can only imagine how fantastic it must look to be there.

Wonderful to see it has turned on such a display for you and thanks so much for
sharing it.

Best Regards

Gary

multiweb (Marc) · #11 05-02-2012, 04:58 PM

That was super cool Rick. Do these things move fast enough that you can pick the motion by eye?

RickS (Rick) · #12 05-02-2012, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheeny

Awesome Rick!

Thanks, Al!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Superb Rick. Growing up with this, I wonder how many northern Scandinavian people really appreciate how remarkably special it is to be able to see this out their back doors.

Thanks, Chris. Many of the locals are pretty matter of fact about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Fantastic Rick.

Thanks, Greg!

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

brilliant - its one thing on my bucket list to see

Definitely worth the effort, thanks H0ughy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by StephenM

Wow! Great timelapse Rick! Must have been great to see!

It was quite amazing, thanks Stephen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevnool

Superb Rick.
So gracefull.

Thanks, Kev!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Very impressive Rick - can you describe the naked eye view of this? How much colour is visible?

Looking forward to seeing the finished time-lapse.

Thanks, David. I could only see hints of colour. Half our group was at a darker site that night and they said they did see the green and hints of red. Previous displays were less bright and appeared monochrome to me.

The amazing part was how quickly the aurora moved. It really was like it was dancing. Swirls would develop and dissipate. Long curtains would appear, shimmering along the whole length. It would have taken a much faster shutter speed to capture everything that was going on. The video only hints at it.

The best part was that I had an intervalometer driving the camera, so I was able to spend most of my time watching rather than playing with the camera.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lester

Wonderful view Rick. How far out of the FOV did the display go? Looks like you could have done with a wider FOV.

Thanks, Lester. At times the aurora reached from one horizon to the other. I thought about using my fisheye, but it's not anywhere near as good a lens as the 14-24. I might give it a go if we get another display when we're in Iceland. The aurora is completely unpredictable, of course, so you never know where to aim the camera until it's too late.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gary

Hi Rick,

The video looks jaw droppingly good!

Can only imagine how fantastic it must look to be there.

Wonderful to see it has turned on such a display for you and thanks so much for
sharing it.

Thanks, Gary! It's an incredible experience and definitely worth enduring the cold, falls on the ice and fish three times a day to see

RickS (Rick) · #13 05-02-2012, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by multiweb

That was super cool Rick. Do these things move fast enough that you can pick the motion by eye?

Marc, the first few times we saw the aurora it moved quite slowly and you couldn't really see it changing in real time. Then we saw this display and it was continually moving and changing. The smaller scale changes were happening on a sub second basis. There was so much stuff going on you just didn't know where to look!

Cheers,
Rick.

iceman (Mike) · #14 05-02-2012, 06:12 PM

That's incredible. Thanks for the beautiful images.

Tandum (Robin) · #15 05-02-2012, 10:56 PM

Pretty spectacular Rick, it looks like it lights up the ground it's so bright.

You not stuck in the ice over there are you? I heard it was -36C in Poland yesterday.

bartman (Bart) · #16 05-02-2012, 11:38 PM

Awesome Rick!
Cheers
Bartman

RickS (Rick) · #17 06-02-2012, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

That's incredible. Thanks for the beautiful images.

Thanks, Mike.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tandum

Pretty spectacular Rick, it looks like it lights up the ground it's so bright.

You not stuck in the ice over there are you? I heard it was -36C in Poland yesterday.

Robin, coldest we've had so far was -27C in Kiruna which made my nose hairs brittle

It does get cold standing outside with a camera despite many layers of clothes, but we haven't had any problems with transport.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartman

Awesome Rick!

Thanks, Bart!

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #18 06-02-2012, 07:05 PM

That is nice Rick ...

Flash

DavidTrap (David) · #19 06-02-2012, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickS

Thanks, David. I could only see hints of colour. Half our group was at a darker site that night and they said they did see the green and hints of red. Previous displays were less bright and appeared monochrome to me.

Thanks Rick,

I wondered if it was like visual vs imaging for DSO.

I was reading the book by the SR-71 pilot, prompted by another thread on here about a high altitude photo-reconisance camera on eBay. There is a nice description of seeing the Aurora Borealis from 70000ft while flying the SR-71.

Also, by chance today one of my patients was a retired 747 pilot. He mentioned flying into Anchorage Alaska and I asked it he'd ever seen the Northern Lights - he had, and said there was definite colour visible at 30000ft.

DT

RickS (Rick) · #20 07-02-2012, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlashDrive

That is nice Rick ...

Flash

Thanks, Flash.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Thanks Rick,

I wondered if it was like visual vs imaging for DSO.

I was reading the book by the SR-71 pilot, prompted by another thread on here about a high altitude photo-reconisance camera on eBay. There is a nice description of seeing the Aurora Borealis from 70000ft while flying the SR-71.

Also, by chance today one of my patients was a retired 747 pilot. He mentioned flying into Anchorage Alaska and I asked it he'd ever seen the Northern Lights - he had, and said there was definite colour visible at 30000ft.

DT

Interesting. Thanks for that, David.