aurora borealis

Milky Way — Sept. 16, 2023

Posted on September 17th, 2023September 17th, 2023 by Patrick

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.

A green band of aurora, and the Pleaides star cluster

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.

A green band of aurora hugging the horizon

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

Posted on August 12th, 2023August 12th, 2023 by Patrick

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

Posted on August 5th, 2023August 5th, 2023 by Patrick

Aurora Borealis (with my camera hard at work)

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

Posted on May 21st, 2023May 21st, 2023 by Patrick

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

Posted on May 5th, 2023May 5th, 2023 by Patrick

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.

Continue reading →

Aurora, April 23, 2023

Posted on April 24th, 2023April 24th, 2023 by Patrick

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 →

In the paper

Posted on April 14th, 2023April 14th, 2023 by Patrick

One of my photos from the March 23, 2023 aurora show is the cover photo on Westman This Week on April 13, 2023

One of my photos from the March 23^rd aurora was the cover photo for this week’s Westman This Week section of the Brandon Sun.

I think that’s pretty neat.

Aurora, March 23, 2023

Posted on March 24th, 2023December 19th, 2023 by Patrick

Wow, that was a show.

The data looked ridiculous from the outset. There’s one parameter, when you’re consulting the oracle (sorry, the space-weather data), the Bz, that you want to be a negative number. I’ve seen great shows when the Bz was around ‑3 or ‑5. The longer it’s negative, the better.

Yesterday afternoon, every time I checked, the Bz was around ‑15. Crazy.

And the auroral oval looked like this. When it’s yellow, that’s usually a good sign. Red—that much red—is flat-out amazing.