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11/30/2003 11:44:30 PM · #1 |
Hello,
I am fairly new here, but, not to photography. I'd like to meet anyone who has an interest in viewing and taking Aurora pictures. Discuss techniques, predictions, and locations. You can view some of my recent work, from the last 3 three weeks, in my Northern Lights portfolio.
Kevin
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11/30/2003 11:49:28 PM · #2 |
Wow Kevin, those shots are STUNNING! I guess you're in the right place to take aurora pics if you're at the north pole! (Are you an elf?). Keep 'em coming!
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11/30/2003 11:58:00 PM · #3 |
Beautiful stuff Kevin!
You are REALlY far north, southern 'burb of Fairbanks, no?
I got clouded out here in SE Wisconsin on the last great opportunity back in October.
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12/01/2003 01:18:13 AM · #4 |
| Welcome to DPC Glacierwolf. Those are the the best aurora photos I've seen. Very interesting that your 10Dworked well at such low temp. Also very low humidity I assume. Would you feel comfortable shooting in those conditions for long periods, 1-2 hours outside? |
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12/01/2003 07:03:40 AM · #5 |
I have two that I took last night,
aurora-borealis
Northern-lights |
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12/01/2003 07:08:38 AM · #6 |
| those kind of pictures make me extremely jealous, and you don't want to see me jealous.... |
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12/01/2003 07:12:54 AM · #7 |
| hey! that reminds me there was a picture of an aurora borealis in this months issue of one of the popular digital photography magazines, in it it had the aurora borealis in the sky and an igloo on the bottom right, the igloo was lighted by a flashlight, and it was the best picture in the magazine....have you seen the picture i'm talking about? |
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12/01/2003 08:22:47 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by unholycommunion:
hey! that reminds me there was a picture of an aurora borealis in this months issue of one of the popular digital photography magazines, in it it had the aurora borealis in the sky and an igloo on the bottom right, the igloo was lighted by a flashlight, and it was the best picture in the magazine....have you seen the picture i'm talking about? |
No I don't is the magazine on the internet? |
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12/01/2003 01:03:12 PM · #9 |
This Finnish Site has some good pics and info as well as links to other sites with even more pics and info.
I'll be in northern Sweden for Christmas so maybe I'll get to see some! It's usually way too cold for me to bother with though. |
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12/02/2003 02:08:37 AM · #10 |
So far, the longest I've had the 10D out is two hours at -31F - camera got so cold it actually hurt my hand to touch it without gloves. I let it warm up in the truck for a bit on the way home, then place it in a plastic bag when I go inside so it won't attract any condensation. This weekend I fashioned a 5 watt snowmachine thumbwarmer to an aluminum frame that fits between the camera, tripod, and travels under to lens to provide some heat - and I have a fur hat I put over the whole thing too. I need to re-wire the Canon TC-80N3 remote shutter - at these temps the wiring turns stiff like a coathanger.
Tonight it's -32.2F so far and we expect it to drop -40F or so. I won't be freezing or loosing sleep - looking for auroras. I've been keeping tabs on the aurora through a University of Alaska site that has a plain language aurora forcast //www.gi.alaska.edu/ but by far the best site is NOAA's Space Weather site //sec.noaa.gov/SWN/ At Space Weather you can have them email you when a solar event large enough to create an aurora happens. For me, a Geomagnetic K3 or X-Ray "M" event is usually a good show being so far North. Most folks in the lower 48 need a K-5 or X-ray X1 event. Last month super auroras were the product of a K-8 and X-17 events. Very unusual - neat thing is, the sun spots that created all those lights are due to rotate back here in a few weeks :) |
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12/02/2003 04:23:03 AM · #11 |
| Great shots Glacierwolf and Eikidigi. I would love to see the exif data on this, ISO and shutterspeed at least. |
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12/02/2003 08:50:15 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by tyrkinn:
Great shots Glacierwolf and Eikidigi. I would love to see the exif data on this, ISO and shutterspeed at least. |
Northern lights- 15 sec F2,0 ISO 200
Aurora borealis 30 sec F2,0 ISO 100 |
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12/02/2003 08:56:28 AM · #13 |
| Whats the difference between Northern lights and Aurora? |
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12/02/2003 10:40:04 AM · #14 |
| Same thing heida. Aurora Borealis is the technical name. The same phenomenon occuring in the southern hemisphere is called Aurora Australis, or not too surprisingly, southern lights. |
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12/02/2003 10:26:03 PM · #15 |
| I'll be updating my aurora pics with the technical information, ISO, F stop, exposure duration later on this week. The BIG thing is having some wide (20mm) and fast f/1.8 glass to catch the aurora with. The wide is important because you need to counteract the 1.6x magnification factor the 10D and most other digital cameras do. And you need the more sensitive/faster lens to drop from ISO 3200 and 1600 down to the less noisy 800 and 400 range ......... plus you can decrease your shutter time from 14-17 seconds to 6-8 seconds for a more sharper image. |
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12/02/2003 11:45:08 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by Glacierwolf:
...The wide is important because you need to counteract the 1.6x magnification factor the 10D and most other digital cameras do. And you need the more sensitive/faster lens to drop from ISO 3200 and 1600 down to the less noisy 800 and 400 range ......... plus you can decrease your shutter time from 14-17 seconds to 6-8 seconds for a more sharper image. |
Glacierwolf, I was thinking about an arrangement using a really fast lens, like the 50mm f/1.4 and a parabolic mirror, with the camera positioned so the reflection of the camera would be hidden by a treeline or other dark obstruction... what do you think of this idea?
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12/03/2003 11:18:32 PM · #17 |
Mr. Kirbic,
I am having a really hard time envisioning this set up with a straight face ....... not that it's a bad idea ....... I'm just wondering how you are gonna explain the set up should the local police drive by. (no matter what you say - it aint gonna sound right!)
If you happen to have a mirror like that handy - give it a try - see how the distortions are. You could stumble into some truly cool shots. What's going to drive you nuts is trying to get a decent focus. The LCD screen is too small to visually check the focus at night - if you have the $$ you'd need to invest in a 12volt 7.5" or larger car video LCD screen. Or, do what I do - throw a UPS and composite video (CCTV) 9" color monitor in your car and take the video output from the camera and run it into the monitor :) I do this because that Sigma aspherical 20mm is very touchy - I lost allot of awesome Aurora pics one night because the focus was off a tad.
Realistically, probably the best bet for catching large sky area is going to be that 20mm lens I am using, or, perhaps another that is a tad wider without going to fish eye.
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12/04/2003 10:27:29 PM · #18 |
For anybody watching this string - a high stream coronal hole event has just started (solar flare) with good auroral activity predicted for the nights of 6 and 7 December 2003. Good hunting!
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12/04/2003 10:44:06 PM · #19 |
Thanks, its supposed to be clear here on the 7th..Maybe I go looking!
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12/05/2003 12:56:47 AM · #20 |
A K-6 Geomagnetic event is currently in progress.
Generally, most events of K-5 magnitude mean people in the Northern parts of the lower 48 can see the aurora at night. K-6 is what caused all those really cool aurora's at the end of this past October (you can some that I caught in my portfolio). I believe the area of the sun that caused the October displays is comming back around now .......
K-6 means I'll be loosing some sleep this weekend, maybe even tonight :)
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