Northern Lights in Iceland

[26Left]

Hello all,

I have just returned from a few exciting days in Iceland. The trip was a brief family reunion. But, as it coincided with a new moon, I could not resist taking a tripod and my Nikon D7000. I had never before observed or photographed the Northern Lights, so this was not an opportunity to be missed.

Weather changes quickly in Iceland and, although it had been snowing earlier, the evening was fairly clear. The Milky Way was very easy to see through Cygnus at my observing site, which was about 30 miles north of Reykavik. Quite suddenly, two bands of light appeared. They were arcing between two points on the horizon rather like a rainbow, with the highest points due north. They quickly brightened and were joined by vertical elements. My poor old eyes could not see much colour, and they appeared mostly light grey. But others who were observing with me clearly saw green.

I set my camera to manual focus and focussed on a bright star. The focal length was 18mm, so quite wide. Even so, I found that the longest exposure I could manage was 20 seconds without stars trailing. Given the dynamic nature of the display, that was long enough. The lens was wide open at F/3.5, so I could only control exposure using ISO. I used ISO 1250 – 2000 and I found ISO 1600 to be the best.

My camera is a Nikon D7000. I set the white balance to 5500K and used the in-camera dark subraction (Nikon call it Long Exposure Noise Reduction).

I lost a few pictures due to stars trailing. There must have been some wobbles somewhere. I forgot to turn of Vibration Reduction (Nikon’s equivalent of Image Stabiliser) on the lens. Turning it off is recommended when a camera is tripod mounted. But, I think the tripod may not have been secure enough. I was standing on recently fallen snow and perhaps I should have dug the tripod legs into the snow more. Also, I was stamping my feet to keep warm, and that cannot have helped.

I kept post processing to a minimum - the pictures did not need it. Just a gentle change to the curves.

Here is my favourite picture, taken when the display was at its brightest:

Taken only five minutes later, this picture demonstrates how quickly the display changed. I was surprised how well the stars were caught. Ursa Major can easily be seen in the background.

Look carefully at the vertical band to the right of centre and you should be able to see the globular cluster M13 and its two "guard" stars:

And two more pictures...

So, I hope you enjoy my pictures and find my brief report useful if you happen to find yourself near the Arctic Circle. If you don't mind the cold, I recommend Iceland as a holiday destination. The stunning landscape also offers ample opportunity for daytime photography, such as my picture below:

Cheers,

Tom.

[Telrad]

Tom, these are really good shots of the auroras in Iceland. Lovely curtains with nice kinks and folds and lovely contrast in those bands. Well done.

[SkyJamie]

Great pictures Tom, what a place to see the Aurora for the first time!

Jamie

[Telrad]

IMO - That first pic should definitely be included in the next POW ( Picture of the Week and Competitions - Stargazers Lounge )

[carastro]

Thanks for those fabulous images.

I am going to Iceland In February with a party of 12 from the Astro group, I hope we also get to see some fabulous aurora.

I am an imager but not much experience using the DSLR camera lens on its own. I am OK when it's stuck in a telescope as I know all the settings and how to get focus, so I have noted your info so I can hopefully get some good shots too.

Thanks

Carole

[Donny]

That's great! I love that first photo especially

[26Left]

Thanks for all your kind comments. One bit of advice I forgot to mention is to be prepared for the cold. It was -2 degrees and felt much colder. I guess as astronomers, we should be used to that. But, I hate the cold and wore six layers of clothing!

Carastro: good luck on your trip. The display I saw was quiet, but still terrific to watch and photograph.

Cheers,

Tom.

[Beyond_Vision]

Must have been a great trip and some really nice pictures to remember it buy. Thanks for sharing them with us

Regards

Kevin

[prokyon]

Wow, this pics are awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[26Left]

I'm very proud to see one of my pictures in Sky at Night Magazine this month (April 2012, page 27)

:)

[peter shah]

beautiful set of images

[sanmatt]

They are all beautiful!

sigh, I so wish I'd been active in this hobby years ago. I went to Norway over Xmas, and the skies were amazing, I remember looking up and thinking woowowoowowowo!! But I didnt know I could image or anything (didnt even have a mobile phone in those days lol)

ps, dont suppose you've tried to stack them to see if you got any star trails? They'd look very pretty

[Joy]

beautiful!

[Space Cowboy]

Fantastic pictures Tom!