The moon was up by the time I got out, so the lights were a bit washed out. The clouds rolled in and I left. In between I snapped a bunch of photos of the northern lights and heard a coyote howling in the distance.
Moonlit aurora, Dec. 1, 2023
aurora borealis
Aurora, Oct. 20th, 2023
I was out from about 10:30pm till midnight, which—judging from some of the other photos I’ve seen—was too early for the real show. Regardless, there was a haze at the horizon and I set up my cameras.
In the video, one second is one minute of real-time. The first minute and a half is from a camera pointed straight north; the remainder is aimed northwest.
Aurora Borealis — Sept. 18, 2023
There were some northern lights again last night. They were pretty intense; not quite as bright as the shows back in March, but nothing to sneeze at either.
I took both my cameras to my favourite spot and snapped photos for about an hour. (No kidding; all the photos below were taken between 10:14pm and 11:16pm.) Out of just over 1000 photos, I present my 27 favourites.
All the photos were 5‑second exposures, f/2.8, ISO 3200, at either 11mm or 24mm.
Here’s a quick peek behind the curtain: compare the unedited photo to the version I’ve uploaded.
Milky Way — Sept. 16, 2023
Last night the sky was clear, so I went south with my cameras. I got some good photos of the Milky Way just off of Highway 2.
There was a haze to the north, too, so I aimed one of the cameras that way. It wasn’t a terribly great show—not while I was out—but I did sneak a quick shot of the aurora and the PLeaides.
On my way home, the aurora picked up a bit, so I detoured onto a dark side road for a few more minutes. I think I missed the best part of the show, but I did get to drive into a foggy valley and back out again, so at least there’s that.
It was a pretty decent evening, and I was home not long after midnight.
(Header image: 12-image panorama of the Milky Way; each image is 11mm, 30 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200.)
Perseids and other sky-borne delights
Last night was clear, so I went out to see if I could catch any of the Perseids. I saw a half-dozen, but I only caught one bright one on camera.
That’s OK, though; there was plenty for me to take photos of.
The Milky Way
Aurora Borealis
Jupiter
Star Trails
Oh, and a meteor
I was out in the dark for a couple hours, and it was worth it.
Aurora, Aug. 4/5, 2023
My first time shooting with two cameras. It was a good show, even with hazy skies and a full moon rising.
And I made a timelapse of over 1,000 of the frames I shot last night, too.
Aurora: May 19–20, 2023
It was a lovely night for the aurora. It’s too bad I was standing next to my car, broken down on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway, while I watched it.
Thanks to my lovely wife Kathleen who came and rescued me, and kept me company while we waited on a tow truck.
Nerdy details: all the photos were taken at 11mm, 5 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200 and edited (lightly) in GIMP. The panorama at the top is 3 photos stitched together with Hugin
Early Bird
In case you slept through my Saturday morning interview with Shannah-Lee Vidal—or you’re not in CBC Manitoba’s broadcast area—here’s how the story went.
Aurora, April 23, 2023
Last night, Kathleen said to me, “I hear the aurora should be good tonight.” I checked the app on my phone that shows me the aurora data. Everything looked pretty good except the Bz value, which was about +17. (For a good show, you want the Bz to be negative. The longer it’s been negative, the better.)
Continue reading “Aurora, April 23, 2023”In the paper
One of my photos from the March 23rd aurora was the cover photo for this week’s Westman This Week section of the Brandon Sun.
I think that’s pretty neat.