Aurora tonight?
Discussion
Looks like there's a good chance of a sight of the Aurora Borealis from virtually anywhere in the UK tonight.
Anyone got any hints for good pictures?
Here are a couple of phone snaps from our garden in the Scottish Borders last night. The moon was a bit bright last night but I still managed something.
Looking forward to seeing some from the real experts on here.
Anyone got any hints for good pictures?
Here are a couple of phone snaps from our garden in the Scottish Borders last night. The moon was a bit bright last night but I still managed something.
Looking forward to seeing some from the real experts on here.
Desiderata said:
Looks like there's a good chance of a sight of the Aurora Borealis from virtually anywhere in the UK tonight.
Anyone got any hints for good pictures?
Assuming you are using a 'proper' camera not just a phone...Anyone got any hints for good pictures?
Tripod, wide aperture, usually a wider lens.
Long enough exposure to capture plenty of light but not so long that the stars turn into obviously elongated blobs, depending on the lens and the brightness of the aurora I most often use 10s-30s exposure.
Crank the ISO up as needed, but remember pushing ISO too high makes for noisy/grainy images. How high is too high depends on the camera.
Avoid light pollution from towns etc as much as possible.
This example was from a Fuji X-T3 with 14mm f2.8, 30s, ISO 3200
Aurora Australis 1 Dec 2023 by Ben, on FlickrI follow a group on Facebook and the guy is very good at predicting. He was on the news channels the other month as he got a stunning pic of them from Snowdon. He has predicted a huge storm tonight, possible to see as far south as Germany and a large number of the group have gone to Talacre Beach in North Wales.
Anyone know what time it's likely to appear? The AuroraWatchUK app showed a disturbance level of over 1,000nT around 4pm this afternoon, but I don't know if that's an indication of what you'd see there and then assuming dark enough sky or if it takes some time to reach us and show up in the sky. The app is now showing minor activity of 62.7nT.
Edited by MitchT on Sunday 24th March 20:59
The readings and alert levels on Aurorawatch are for what you might see (conditions depending) at that time. So if it's red when it's dark it's good - then you need to hope for clear skies and being in a good spot.
Its useful to know in daytime if activity is high to plan, but it's no guarantee it will stay high for long.
The full moon isn't going to help.
Its useful to know in daytime if activity is high to plan, but it's no guarantee it will stay high for long.
The full moon isn't going to help.
MitchT said:
Is that because you were using a long exposure setting. If so, how long did you set it for?
I’d guess the phone was left to do the exposure itself. Three seconds is plenty, and that’s what my iPhone 12 Pro does. Not even important to keep dead still, the software lines everything up. Tony1963 said:
MitchT said:
Is that because you were using a long exposure setting. If so, how long did you set it for?
I’d guess the phone was left to do the exposure itself. Three seconds is plenty, and that’s what my iPhone 12 Pro does. Not even important to keep dead still, the software lines everything up. Amazing how more vivid the colours can be through the camera compared to the naked eye.
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