Part-time prevaricator
I caught some more northern lights last night.
The brightest part of the show didn’t last very long, but I let my cameras snap away for a bit less than an hour, and put together a time-lapse video. One second of video is one minute of real time; there’s a cut about ¾ of the way through the video, from camera 1 to camera 2.
Yesterday was my birthday, and the sky was clear and the aurora data were pretty good. So about 10pm I hit the road, and got these photos about 15 minutes from my house.
Above: an 11-photo panorama stretching from west to east.
The stars were sharp and clear, too, in the cold air, so I snapped some photos of one of my favourite constellations, Orion.
And because my cameras were nice and still for most of the time, I have a minute or so of timelapse video for you. Each second of video is a minute of real time.
The aurora data were good last night, but I’d had a long day so I didn’t go out in the countryside last night. I did set up a camera in the spare room, in case it got bright enough to be seen over the city lights. At worst, I thought, I’d get a few hours’ worth of star trails.
Oh, and the star trails turned out OK, too.
I set up the camera around midnight; the battery finally died around 4:35am. The trails above are made from about 2,200 frames, each 5 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 800.
It was clear to the west, so I grabbed my camera and took a chance.
It was not clear to the north.
Once I got home, the sky to the east was clear. I set up a camera in our spare room, aimed due east, and let it click until the batteries died. Between 11:30pm and 2:30am it got these gems, plucked from almost 2000 frames.
These photos, I have to keep reminding myself, were taken inside the city. Normally I’m happy when I get light like this a few kilometres out of town, where it’s starting to get properly dark. These aurora were competing with streetlights, and winning.
Oh yeah, I also turned the 2000ish photos from the spare room into a timelapse.
Were the northern lights out last night? Yes.
Was I out last night? Also yes.
Continue reading “Aurora, Oct. 6, 2024”
It was clear and the aurora data looked good, so I went out on a school night and took pictures till nearly all my batteries had died. (I neglected to charge them after my camping weekend, so it took about 45 minutes. Sigh.)
Continue reading “Aurora Borealis, August 11, 2024”
I got out to my spot about 11:30pm, just in time for the show to ramp up. When it started to slow down, I packed my cameras into the car, getting ready to head home since it was a school night. But as I was collapsing my tripods, the aurora suddenly flared up again, and I scrambled to get my cameras re-mounted and clicking away again. I think it was worth staying up a little late.
The second night[1]First night is here. of the show was a bit tamer, and tempered by smoke in the air that amplified all the ground lights. Still, it was a good night. I spent a couple hours snapping photos with my friend Kevin.
The smoke turned the crescent moon reddish-orange, too.
Timelapse. See if you can tell when the light was strong enough that I could see it reflecting off my hi-vis vest.
I was out from about 10:30pm till about half past midnight. It was another good night.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | First night is here. |
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