aurora borealis

Overnight in the city

Posted on by Patrick
Star trails above a row of trees, lit from below by house lights and traffic

As I was going to bed last night, I took a look out the win­dow. The fore­cast had said it was sup­posed to be part­ly cloudy overnight, but the sky looked pret­ty clear. I set up a cam­era in the spare room, point­ed out the win­dow, and let it snap away. I fig­ured I’d get some star trails out of it if noth­ing else.

The auro­ra decid­ed to make an appear­ance. It was just get­ting ramped up when my cam­era bat­tery died around 2:30am, but I got a cou­ple good shots out of it.

Oh, and the star trails turned out pret­ty good, too. They’re at the top, and are tak­en from about the first hour and a half of the evening.

The video below is the full two hours and thir­ty-six min­utes, but it runs at 60x so that one sec­ond of video is one minute of real[1]What­ev­er that might mean, rel­a­tivis­ti­cal­ly. time.

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
↑1 What­ev­er that might mean, relativistically.

Birthday Aurora

Posted on by Patrick
Panoramic photo of the aurora

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.

Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis - pillars in green and pink
Aurora Borealis - pillars in green and pink
Aurora Borealis - green below, pale pink and purple above
Aurora Borealis - pillars of green
Aurora Borealis - pillars of green
Aurora Borealis -- a curtain of green with an intense pillar on the left
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains
Aurora Borealis -- green and purple curtains, facing almost due west

The stars were sharp and clear, too, in the cold air, so I snapped some pho­tos of one of my favourite con­stel­la­tions, Orion.

Orion above the trees
Orion above the trees

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.

Aurora from my upstairs window

Posted on by Patrick
Aurora above the city lights

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.

Aurora above the city lights
Aurora above the city lights
Aurora above the city lights

Oh, and the star trails turned out OK, too.

4½ hours worth of star trails

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.

Aurora and clouds, Oct. 10–11, 2024

Posted on by Patrick
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, red and green

It was clear to the west, so I grabbed my cam­era and took a chance.

It was not clear to the north.

The aurora trying to peek through the clouds,a patch of very bright green
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, red and gree
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, red and green
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, a long shaft of green
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, a glimpse of a green curtain
The aurora trying to peek through the clouds, a loop of green

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.

Brilliant aurora: clouds of red and shafts of green above the trees
Brilliant aurora: curtains of brilliant green above the trees
Brilliant aurora: shafts of green above the trees

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.

Aurora, Oct. 7, 2024

Posted on by Patrick
Aurora Borealis as viewed from within the city, facing due east

This is not an every­day[1]Everynight. view from my back yard.

Aurora Borealis as seen from my back yard

…or my upstairs bedroom.

Aurora viewed through my upstairs window

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
↑1 Everynight.

Writing Retreat (5b — Aurora Borealis)

Posted on by Patrick
Panorama of last night's aurora, west to east

It was quite a night.

Con­tin­ue read­ing “Writ­ing Retreat (5b — Auro­ra Bore­alis)” →

Series: Writing Retreat 2024

The entire series: Writ­ing Retreat 2024 (1); Writ­ing Retreat 2024 (2); Writ­ing Retreat 2024 (3); Writ­ing Retreat 2024 (4); Writ­ing Retreat (5a — Milky Way); Writ­ing Retreat (5b — Auro­ra Bore­alis); Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 6; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 7; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: The End.