WIsh I could up and out to somewhere dark to see it ~ but if I go out now I will be out all night once the camera is on and I am up mega early in the morning :(
given that i was just there last week and we had storm warnings / hurricane wind warnings, snow storms etc... that prevented us from seeing the northern lights, this news makes me pretty disappointed...
@anne15 Thanks Anne. I wrote a long piece for someone who wanted any information on how to photograph the Northern Lights. I have reproduced it here for you.
Use a wide angle lens and the fastest one you have.
Keep the ISO high to keep shutter speeds low - anything more than ten seconds causes star trails to appear.
Manual focus - set your lens to infinity and back off a tad.
Use a sturdy tripod.
DON't use a flash or torch to illuminate foreground interest if anyone else is around, because it will ruin night vision (yours and theirs) and you will not be popular.
Keep spare batteries and memory cards present. Keep batteries in a pocket so that they stay warm - they can discharge very swiftly in colder temperatures.
Shoot in Raw - that way you will have more latitude should you get it wrong.
White balance - I found Daylight gave the best results but you can always fix it later on.
Get an app on your smartphone to forecast Auroral activity BUT because the Aurora is a natural activity, you might find that the forecast are wildly inaccurate.
Get an app on your phone to forecast Solar events (e.g. coronal mass ejections, solar flare activity) as these are the sorts of things that cause bigger / brighter aurorae.
The Aurora is not an excessively bright event unless you are lucky. You might see nothing at all - be prepared for disappointment. You might be lucky to see Auroral sub-storms then again, you might not and the best you might see is a greyish, greenish smudge.
There are three colours that might show. Green (mostly) where highish energy particles strike Oxygen atoms low in the atmosphere, red (rarer than green) where lower energy particles strike Oxygen atoms higher in the atmosphere and violet (rare) where very high energy particles strike Nitrogen atoms.
As for movement of the Aurora... sometimes they appear stationary, at other times they might dance in front of your eyes.
No activity lasts forever (anything from a few seconds to a few minutes) so be prepared to take photographs at a moment's notice.
Keep your eyes open and be prepared to wait for a long time - sneaking indoors to get a cup of coffee will almost guarantee that you will miss any decent activity.
Look to the brightest part of the Aurora because that is where activity is most likely to start.
Wrap up warm otherwise it won't be your camera that gets a case of bad exposure.
Good luck.
@mittens Thank you Marilyn. It was just too hazy and bright here last night so I am happy with my Northern Lights shots from Norway last year - we were blessed with seeing them eight nights out of eleven.
@creampuff Thanks, you have written a very informative article. I was interested to read that for the aurora borealis you note seeing the reds is rare, for us in NZ observing the aurora australis the red is more common due to our distance from the south pole. The green for us is usually just the lower portion of the display rather than the beautiful curtains that fill your night skies. In all the years I have been photographing these dispays, the huge storms of 2001 are still my highlight. This current solar cycle has not provided us with much action by comparison.... hopefully she's just a liitle late in producing the goods this time! ;)
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Use a wide angle lens and the fastest one you have.
Keep the ISO high to keep shutter speeds low - anything more than ten seconds causes star trails to appear.
Manual focus - set your lens to infinity and back off a tad.
Use a sturdy tripod.
DON't use a flash or torch to illuminate foreground interest if anyone else is around, because it will ruin night vision (yours and theirs) and you will not be popular.
Keep spare batteries and memory cards present. Keep batteries in a pocket so that they stay warm - they can discharge very swiftly in colder temperatures.
Shoot in Raw - that way you will have more latitude should you get it wrong.
White balance - I found Daylight gave the best results but you can always fix it later on.
Get an app on your smartphone to forecast Auroral activity BUT because the Aurora is a natural activity, you might find that the forecast are wildly inaccurate.
Get an app on your phone to forecast Solar events (e.g. coronal mass ejections, solar flare activity) as these are the sorts of things that cause bigger / brighter aurorae.
The Aurora is not an excessively bright event unless you are lucky. You might see nothing at all - be prepared for disappointment. You might be lucky to see Auroral sub-storms then again, you might not and the best you might see is a greyish, greenish smudge.
There are three colours that might show. Green (mostly) where highish energy particles strike Oxygen atoms low in the atmosphere, red (rarer than green) where lower energy particles strike Oxygen atoms higher in the atmosphere and violet (rare) where very high energy particles strike Nitrogen atoms.
As for movement of the Aurora... sometimes they appear stationary, at other times they might dance in front of your eyes.
No activity lasts forever (anything from a few seconds to a few minutes) so be prepared to take photographs at a moment's notice.
Keep your eyes open and be prepared to wait for a long time - sneaking indoors to get a cup of coffee will almost guarantee that you will miss any decent activity.
Look to the brightest part of the Aurora because that is where activity is most likely to start.
Wrap up warm otherwise it won't be your camera that gets a case of bad exposure.
Good luck.
Last night we only got a little before the clouds moved in.