Northern Lights photography

[Dakotah Jackson]

http://spaceweather.com/

The site above will keep you up to date on opportunities for photographing Northern Lights and other sky phenomena. A good way to see when things will be good for going outside and getting some good images.

Below is from the site early this morning(5AM CDT). Unfortunately, our skies are cloud covered right now. The North sky is brighter than the rest and I can tell we have a light show going on but can't see it.


AURORAS IN THE USA: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth on Oct. 24th at approximately 1800 UT (2:00 pm EDT). The impact strongly compressed Earth's magnetic field, directly exposing geosynchronous satellites to solar wind plasma, and sparked an intense geomagnetic storm. As night fell over North America, auroras spilled across the Canadian border into the contiguous United States.

"Wow, wow, wow! These were the best Northern Lights I've seen since 2004," says Shawn Malone, who took this picture from the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan:



"The auroras filled the sky in every direction--even to the south," he says.

Indeed, the display spread all the way down to Arkansas. "When I saw the alert, I ran outside and immediately saw red auroras," reports Brian Emfinger from the city of Ozark. "Within a few minutes the auroras went crazy! Unbelievable!"

Auroras were seen or photographed in more than half of all US states including Alabama, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Maryland, New York, Montana, Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Arkansas and California. Many observers, especially in the deep south, commented on the pure red color of the lights they saw. These rare all-red auroras sometimes appear during intense geomagnetic storms. They occur some 300 to 500 km above Earth's surface and are not yet fully understood.

The storm is subsiding now. Nevertheless, high-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the CME impact. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

[QT Luong]

Has anyone photographed auroras with LF successfully, esp. in color ?

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Auroras with LF? Film? Heck, Aurora borealis is a challenge to capture with any detail even with 35mm film gear shot wide open, as I first discovered on a trip to Alaska many years ago. Astronomy is an area where digital has indeed trumped film--due to the ISO boost with no reciprocity failure.
Not that someone can't argue that point (uh oh-- nuther 30 page thread looming), but film astronomy does get rather esoteric in a hurry-- what with hypering chambers, and using little baitfish aerator pumps with the valving turned backwards to make your own vacuum back, etc.

[E. von Hoegh]

Has anyone photographed auroras with LF successfully, esp. in color ?

Not yet. I was ready to go last night with some 400 speed c41 in an old Nikon, 20mm lens, but clouds got in the way. I've never had very good results, no matter what film/format/lens combo. Some decent stuff, but nothing outstanding.

[Drew Wiley]

Get ahold of Ctein. He's pretty much an expert in atmospheric exp issues and has taken
quite a few exceptional shots of aurora phenomena. I've seen a number of his dye
transfer prints of these. I'm pretty sure they were P67 negs, but that should not be
too much of a problem translating into possible view camera alternatives. A fast infinity
lens would certainly help, and a sportfinder.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Yeah, and while you're at it, ask Ctein if he's still photographing auroras today with a P67 on film and printing with dye transfer.

(I await the answer with bated breath.)

[Drew Wiley]

What's buggin you? Just try printing the same hues inkjet instead of dye transfer
(he does both) and see what gets lost in translation. The question was about how to
do it in large format, not why to cop out and not try at all. Yeah, I'll admit that in the
old days I would have grabbed some of that wonderful Agfa 120 1000ASA color film,
grit and all, for something like this. It could handle tricky hues like no current high
speed E6 or C41 film; but it simply ain't no mo'. What's wrong with a challenge, esp
since this is the View Camera forum, where as you might observe, there aren't many
Nikon Coolpix advertisements for some strange reason.

[domaz]

You could mod a DSLR to have better cooling off the CCD so you can take really long exposures with low noise like this. Looks like a lot of fun to me.

[Dakotah Jackson]

Insted of modifying for a cold CCD why not just come to North Dakota and photograph the lights in the winter. At 25 below zero the camera doesn't get too warm.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

You could mod a DSLR to have better cooling off the CCD so you can take really long exposures with low noise like this. Looks like a lot of fun to me.

Can't tell from the pic whether that's going to be practical or work at all. Is that simply a computer fan? If mounted to the camera the vibration from that on a long exposure would be most unwelcome. "Peltier" coolers have no moving parts, use remote peizo electric crystals, cooler mounted remotely with tubing circulating coolant in and around the sensor in the camera body. Don't know how you'd achieve that with a DSLR. Too, the camera has to be inert gas purged (typically using nitrogen or argon), as frost will form out of supercooled atmospheric air containing any moisture at all.