Aurora Tonite

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/viewtopic....p?p=45506#45506

A few temp pics...have about 100 more, lol. The 2 a.m. CDT peak was nuts.

 

[Todd Rittinger]

Clearly visible under the city lights here in Kitchener. Bluish/green and looked real kewl. A rare treat to see under the urban lights...

Be well, TR

 

[GPhillips]

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/viewtopic....p?p=45506#45506

A few temp pics...have about 100 more, lol. The 2 a.m. CDT peak was nuts.

Beautiful pics Mike. Thanks for sharing.

 

[David Draun]

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/viewtopic....p?p=45506#45506

A few temp pics...have about 100 more, lol. The 2 a.m. CDT peak was nuts.

Beautiful pics Mike. Thanks for sharing.

Was it really that bright? Or were the photos editted a little?

Wow! :shock:

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Long exposures will show these brighter then they actually were in pretty much every case. It's still what the camera is seeing, but over a longer period of time. The ones on that page at this time were very very strong. I don't imagine they get much stronger then they were when I took those..ssoooooo... Early in the night a 50 second exposure would yeild a decent image. At that time frame they were only taking 25-30 seconds. I watched the show allll night, and hear this was one of the best shows ever. So they were pretty much as bright as you get. The camera could not pick up the faint flashes quick enough though, which were the coolest things to watch.

 

[Jeff Lawson]

I can't believe I missed this. D'oh!

Since I have a clear view to the north here at home, I'll be out watching tonight. The only drag is that, since I'm in Bellevue, the whole of Omaha is to my north. The light pollution isn't all that bad (nothing like back home in DFW, that's for sure), but whether it's enough to drown out an aurora display, I don't know. Here's what I usually see...might be cool to get a bright aurora display over that.

 

[Glen Romine]

Nice pics Mike. I'm still shooting slides.... and am again reminded why I need to switch to digital, because I was all out of fast film. Anyhow, did get to go out and enjoy the show anyhow. Hopefully this fal will have some more nice displays. I noted Mike that you are going with some very long exposures - is the digital grain/noise unacceptable at higher ISO ratings? I find the structure changes to fast to get crisp images with exposures > ~ 10 sec unless using a wide angle lens.

Glen

 

[Ben Cotton]

My own photos:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~bcotton/wx/spac.../aurora/041107/

For you technicaly types, here's the camera information.
Camera: Canon EOS RebelX 35mm
Film: photos 1-7, ISO 100...8-17, ISO 400
Shutter speed: photos 1-7, 20 or 30 sec...8-17, 10 or 15 sec

I apologize for some of the splotches. Take careful note of #15...it's my UFO.


Ben

 

[Susan Strom]

Just got a bulletin from Univ of Alaska - those who missed the weekend's display might want to skywatch tonight for another chance at the possibility.

<sigh> have fun...
-Susan, at the 34th parallel

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Thanks Glen. Yeah I don't care for the noise at anything over digital ISO 200 with the cam. ISO 100 really wasn't getting the job done. 400 would of been better, but I'll sacrafice some longer exposure 'blur' for less noise. I think most would consider the ISO 400 noise acceptable but far from desireable. ISO 800 is not acceptable...1600 a joke. ISO 200 even has a good increase of noise from ISO 100 which is extremely low with this cam even at 1 minute plus exposures. All of mine posted were ISO 200 and the lens is fairly wide at 18mm(30mm or so slr equivalent). It really sucks you can't hardly zoom at all at night and still stand a chance at being in focus...least with my lens. If I put it wide open and spin the focus all the way left I at least know the shot will be in focus. I got the rest of the pics up I'll be putting up for this. The last 8 were the shorter exposures at 20-30 seconds.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/04-11-8.htm

 

[Bill Hark]

There was an extreme geomagnetic storm triggered by a solar flare that struck the Earth about 5PM on November 7, 2004. Aurora or northern lights were visible as far south as Florida. The photos in this series were taken between 10:45PM and 11:30PM November 7 in eastern Goochland county along Route 250 looking north. I used a 20 year old Nikon FG with Fuji 800 and 1600 speed film, a zoom at 28mm (f3.5). Exposure times are bracketed between 10 and 30 seconds.

This display caught me by surprise as I was expecting a minor solar storm with aurora only visible far to the north. I was checking e-mail about 9:30PM and decided to check the "Spaceweather" website. There was an alert for a geomagnetic storm in progress. All the indices were off the chart. I grabbed my gear, picked up my girlfriend Ginny and we blasted west from Richmond into Goochland County. Since the storm had been raging for several hours, I was concerned it would subside. We could see a whitish green arc to the north and a dull reddish glow above it at about 10:30PM. We waited. At times, large meteors were visible especially to the south. The arc became brighter and raised off the horizon forming a folding or curtain-like pattern. The red area intensified. Soon, whitish translucent columns formed and vanished. Some extended to almost overhead. At times, the northern sky was covered with regular whitish vertical lines against a ghostly pale background. The lights were shimmering and shifting, vanishing and reappearing. By 11:30PM, the red area became extremely bright before starting to fade. We left as the aurora became a dull pale arc with reddish glow above it. This was an absolutely amazing display.

There is a chance of more northern lights early Monday morning or more likely Tuesday evening.

For my images that evening:

http://www.harkphoto.com/nov072004aurora.html

 

[Stuart Robinson]

AuroraWatch Alert, 20:01 UT 09 Nov 2004:
VERY HIGH local activity, possible ongoing geomagnetic storm.

http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/iono/aurorawatch/

The UK detector site is overload with online users however but at last we have some breaks in the cloud over the UK - if only I had not lent out my tripod...

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Yeah, another good show setting up right now. Its actually already occuring over a good chunk of the northern US, of course its still daylight. I just went out and bought more film just incase it lights up again!

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Some reports of the lights are now coming in for the UK - I can not see them however - perhaps I am a tad too far south being located in the middle of the UK.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/stu/act.gif

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Hmmmm, I wonder if they'll be possible to see at all through a weak cirrus sheild. Also the Bz component is pegged at +50(north). The last event it was pegged at -50(south). Expectations low here.