Tromso aurora

[lukebl]

Hi all,

Here's a few captures of the aurora near Tromso, Norway with my 8mm Samyang fisheye and Canon 450d. The weather was grey and drizzly for most our our week there, but there were sufficent gaps in the cloud to see the display, which was showing every night. As a first-time aurora-watcher, what struck me was the amazing speed at which they change. Literally moving and rippling by the second. I took a series of 25 second exposures but with hindsight I should have gone for a higer ISO and shorter exposures to capture the crispness better.

Anyway, this is an animation of 24 consecutive 25-second frames, which show the amazing speed at which it changes. (shame about the neighbour's lights!)

And here's a few single frames:

[Ags]

I love the animation. I am going there in September!

[Astrokev]

Great images Luke, and the video is fantastic. This has given me some ideas for our visit to Tromso in early Feb.

I've just ordered a Sigma 8mm wideangle, thinking that this would be wide enough to capture the whole display (assuming the skies stay clear) but, having seen your video, I think I may be wrong on that one!

[laser_jock99]

Nice aurouras- worth the trip North.

[Astrokev]

Luke

I forgot to ask; what exposure and aperture did you use for your shots, or what would you recommend as a starting point?

7 days to go before we fly north, so starting to experiment with my new 8-16mm zoom!

Thanks

Kevin

[davew]

Great animation. It gives a much better idea of what goes on than the static shots.

I'm as green as the Aurora !

Dave.

[davo]

Amazing animation and the images are just Incredible!

[lukebl]

....I forgot to ask; what exposure and aperture did you use for your shots, or what would you recommend as a starting point?.....

These were 25 seconds at ISO800, not sure of the f-stop. The thing I didn't expect was that it changes and ripples literally by the second, so you should really try for shorter exposures than mine if you can push the ISO. These longer exposures obviously smooth out the movement, and you lose the remarkable crispness of the 'curtains'. There was one moment when half the sky shimmered brightly for a few seconds in pink and green, like a faulty multi-coloured flourescent light tube, and then vanished. We were dumbstruck. You couldn't capture that in a single exposure, and my camera wasn't ready anyway!. There were other times when there were just eerie greenish 'clouds' which suddenly brightened and faded over a period of a few seconds, all over the sky.

Hope it shows well for your trip. It really is an indescribable phenomenon!

[Astrokev]

Thanks Luke. Indescribable maybe, but your words conjure up a pretty good impression of the majesty!

Dumb me - I now see that you'd included the exposure legth at the top of your post (!) but not the ISO, so your extra info is helpful, thanks. If we see a display at all, I just hope it's long enough for me to experiment with different ISO and exposure settings. Unfortunately, my lens is only f4.5 at 8mm and produces a noticeable amount of vignetting. f8 gives a much more even gradation, but I'm not sure this is open enough to give short exposures, unless I really push the ISO. My D300 is pretty good at handling noise up to 1600 ISO so I may have a play and see what I can achieve.

The other option is to keep at f4.5 and reduce vignetting in post-processing. I use Lightroom, which has tools to reduce vignetting. Must give this a try before my trip.

Looking on a Tromso live all-sky webcan just now, it seems there's aurora showing tonight! Weather is predicted as being patchy cloud for next weekend, so here's hoping!

[LukeSkywatcher]

My mother brought up the conversation a few nights ago about the Northern Lights. Because i am in a wheelchair,.............perhaps a land based trip to Norway is not the best idea for me, so she thought about one of the flights from a UK airport (Gatwick). We can stay with family who live 10 mins from Gatwick and take one of the flights above the clouds.

I'll be contacting Pete Lawrence because he is connected with this and is the tour guide on many flights.

[ollypenrice]

Fantastic. The foreground really gives a context. I've never enjoyed Aurora images more than this.

I went there thirty-two years ago on my motorbike in the summer. The Paris on the north. (You know, like Paris is the Tromso of the south...) Did you like the Arctic Cathedral?

Olly

[lukebl]

My mother brought up the conversation a few nights ago about the Northern Lights. Because i am in a wheelchair,.............perhaps a land based trip to Norway is not the best idea for me, so she thought about one of the flights from a UK airport (Gatwick). We can stay with family who live 10 mins from Gatwick and take one of the flights above the clouds.

I'll be contacting Pete Lawrence because he is connected with this and is the tour guide on many flights.

Hey Paul, anything's possible. I went there with my wife, who actually is in a wheelchair and increasingly disabled. We went to Tromso via Gatwick and Olso, and the airport staff at all airports couldn't have been more helpful. We have proved that you can get to the arctic in a wheelchair. Go for it!

Here's me 'n 'er catching our first view of the aurora to prove it.

And yes, Olly, the Arctic Cathedral was great and, although Tromso is a really nice city, I don't really know how they can claim it to be the Paris of the North!

[kirkster501]

Utterly wonderful. Thanks for sharing these fabulous photos and video. I wish we had such views in the UK instead of just a constant, relentless and monotonous grey. No wonder we are so miserable !!!

[foundaplanet]

Great shots, really like them and what a great setting.

The mini movie is excellent and the light coming on in the chalet adds to it to.

[ollypenrice]

Wow, yes, the genius of the Arctic Cathedral is the way it works 'inside out' in the winter, illuminating its own outside from within and making the stained glass enjoyable from the outside as well. You've really made me want to go back. Yes indeedy.

Olly

[Astrokev]

Hi Luke

You may have seen my post earlier tonight of our aurora imaging. I've made a few short avi videos. How did you post video??

thanks

Kevin

[lukebl]

Hi Luke

You may have seen my post earlier tonight of our aurora imaging. I've made a few short avi videos. How did you post video??

thanks

Kevin

Hi Kevin. Looks like you had a better display that we did. Awesome isn't it? There's been some spectacular displays over the past few days.

My animation wasn't an avi. It was just a gif file created using the Photoshop 'Animation' command. Not sure how to post an avi.

[Astrokev]

Hi Luke.

Thanks.

Yep, the aurora is awesome. It seems like a dream now that we're back to reality and I just want to go back!

[stellawolf]

Fantastic video & great images well done

[Moonshane]

Hey Paul, anything's possible. I went there with my wife, who actually is in a wheelchair and increasingly disabled. We went to Tromso via Gatwick and Olso, and the airport staff at all airports couldn't have been more helpful. We have proved that you can get to the arctic in a wheelchair. Go for it!

Here's me 'n 'er catching our first view of the aurora to prove it.

this one is actually my favourite of the lot. at the risk of sounding patronising (unintended obviously) it's really sweet.

by that I mean, I hope that I'm with my wife to see my first too.

obviously Jupiter Taurus with a backdrop of Aurora, you cannot go wrong!

[lukebl]

Thanks Moonshane, that's very nice of you. Not patronising at all!