Northern Lights, Northern Scotland

[dubzter]

here area couple of shots of the Northern Lights last night up in the North of Scotland.


Northern Lights 22/01/2012 by dubzter, on Flickr


Northern Lights 22/01/2012 by dubzter, on Flickr

[dubzter]

AndWhyNot said:

Great stuff.

Set for another great show tonight, I spent half of last night investigating transport options to get up there but there's nothing viable within cost & time constraints - car is out of the question and to fly was going to be £200+ & 6hrs each way

Glad to see others are making the most of it though

Aye, another solar flare kicked off lat night so hoping for Tuesday/Wednesday night.

[dubzter]

cptsideways said:

wowzers

keep us posted with new pics please, I've seen it once in N Dorset a few years back & once flying over Greenland to the USA. An awesome sight.

I'll do my best

gtrpeter123 said:

Damn - wish it could have been seen further south!

Think this one was visible in Northern England

Hooli said:

I'd love to see that, shame I'm too far south.

Great pics too

Thanks

[dubzter]

Lefty said:

Great shot OP, I could see it in West Aberdeenshire but it wasn't as bright as that. Lovely.

What camera/lens did you use?

Thanks, I was using my Canon Eos 450d with 18-55 kit lens

utgjon said:

I'm going out tonight in Northumberland.
Wanted to be out last night but it just wasn't feasible.

Got the morning off work tomorrow, camera has been charged etc...

Fingers crossed we'll get to see something. As with many people, it's been a lifelong dream of mine to see them.

Anyone else going to be out and about in the area?

Not sure what the Aurora forecast is for tonight but I think there may be something Tuesday/Wednesday night. Oh and these shots were taken between 21.00 21.30.

Check http://spaceweather.com/ for updates.

[dubzter]

utgjon said:

Yeah, unfortunately tomorrow night's a no-go for me as well, so it's tonight or not at all really.

If there's nothing, then so be it...

What settings were you using?

The first one was
iso400
60 seconds
F3.5
18mm

The second was
iso400
59 seconds
F4.5
18mm

[dubzter]

NinjaPower said:

If I do go out can anyone give me any tips on what to do/use/settings?

I have a D90 and a choice of:
Nikon 18-200mm F3.5-5.6 VR
Nikon 50mm F1.8
Tokina 11-16mm F2.8.

I also have a good tripod and a remote for triggering and using the Bulb setting for exposures longer than the standard max 30 secs.

Never taken long exposure night shots for stars or anything like that before.

If it were me with your kit I'd be using the tokina 11-16, iso 200-400 manual settings, f2.8, 15-30 second exposure, manual focus set to infinity(ish) (depending on if you want to capture something in the foreground as well or not) and take it from there. you could bump the iso up and get a shorter exposure time.

I was using my Canon Eos 450d, 18-55mm kit lens, iso 400, 60 seconds and playing around with the fstop.

[dubzter]

Windy Vortex said:

A camera seems to intensify the colours of the aurora, especially the greens and will often 'see' colours in the aurora the human eye can't, for example reds.

Next time there's an aurora, give it a go, I think you'll be surprised!

As windy has said, if you take a long exposure you will pick up much fainter light than the eye can see. Although the Aurora was blatantly visible to the naked eye the night I took those.

Fingers crossed for another showing tonight.

[dubzter]

Nothing for me last night, thick cloud and rain so didn't even bother going out

[dubzter]

baz7175 said:

I spent last night in an Airbus 340 over the Atlantic from Chicago to Dusseldorf, and for around an hour and a half as we flew over Iceland I was treated to one hell of an amazing lightshow at 39,000 feet...never been so angry and not having the camera to hand in my life!

I'm jealous as hell, well the not having a camera bit kinda sucks but at least you got a good show.

It has been pretty poor up here on the north coast of Scotland with all the rain, cloud and daylight to contend with when all the aurora alerts are going off. Fingers crossed will get some more soon.

A couple of the sites I use to keep an eye on things are
http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/
http://spaceweather.com/
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
http://helios.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation/
http://solarham.com/index.htm