Another photo from my shoot of the Aurora Borealis at the end of May. There have been a couple of strong storms so far in June, but unfortunately they have coincided with completely overcast skies here in Vancouver!
This is a 7-shot panorama taken from one of the viewing platforms at Porteau Cove Provincial Park, although I've cropped it down at the edges. This nicely captures the green glow of the aurora through the clouds and its reflection on the water, as well as the odd patterns in the sky to the west, I believe caused by thin layers of cloud reflecting the lights of Gibsons and Nanaimo.
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
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This is spectacular, Alexis! You have done an amazing job of capturing a beautiful image and making it a piece of art to express through your photography! Definitely worth viewing large!!
Great sky and view of the aurora. The right to left color contrast is most interesting. Nothing like this this far south, let alone all the lights for miles around New York City.
@stuckinoz Thanks Janelle, and apologies, I realised I'd missed your question!
There isn't any specific time of year when you can see it (unless you live sufficiently far north that it doesn't get dark in the summer, of course!), but it's very intermittent. It depends on the solar activity at any given time, which is quite random and very hard to predict more than a few minutes in advance.
Despite the randomness on a day-by-day basis, it has been determined that solar activity peaks approximately every 11 years -- and right now we're at the top of a peak, so there is a better chance of seeing it over the next few months than there will be for a long time afterwards, especially a relatively southern latitudes.
There have been about 4 or 5 days so far this year when there has been sufficient activity at the right time of day (i.e. at night in Vancouver) when it could have been seen here, but unfortunately it was either overcast or there was a full moon on the other occasions. This night was the strongest storm this year, which meant it was visible even though it wasn't a totally clear night. I've seen photos of the aurora taken on the same night from as far south as north New Mexico, which shows how strong it was!
I gave some details on how to check the forecast on my previous photo from the same night -- see my comment about 2/3rds down the page: http://365project.org/abirkill/365/2013-06-01
However, I see you are in Australia at the moment, so you will need to find out what Kp strength would result in the Aurora Australis being visible at your latitude -- I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with that as I am with the northern lights information!
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There isn't any specific time of year when you can see it (unless you live sufficiently far north that it doesn't get dark in the summer, of course!), but it's very intermittent. It depends on the solar activity at any given time, which is quite random and very hard to predict more than a few minutes in advance.
Despite the randomness on a day-by-day basis, it has been determined that solar activity peaks approximately every 11 years -- and right now we're at the top of a peak, so there is a better chance of seeing it over the next few months than there will be for a long time afterwards, especially a relatively southern latitudes.
There have been about 4 or 5 days so far this year when there has been sufficient activity at the right time of day (i.e. at night in Vancouver) when it could have been seen here, but unfortunately it was either overcast or there was a full moon on the other occasions. This night was the strongest storm this year, which meant it was visible even though it wasn't a totally clear night. I've seen photos of the aurora taken on the same night from as far south as north New Mexico, which shows how strong it was!
I gave some details on how to check the forecast on my previous photo from the same night -- see my comment about 2/3rds down the page:
http://365project.org/abirkill/365/2013-06-01
However, I see you are in Australia at the moment, so you will need to find out what Kp strength would result in the Aurora Australis being visible at your latitude -- I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with that as I am with the northern lights information!