AstroLandscapes #44 (The Aurora Files) - the many colours of heaven

[FenlandPaul]

While I was shooting the serene scene in Light and Tranquility, my wife started to get excited about a distinct brightening and more rapid movement to the south.  Arcs of pulsating and flickering pillars were starting to form, and greens were turning to pinks more frequently, even to the eye.  The whole sky was starting to take on a distinct glow, with different hues appearing and dissipating with increasing frequency.

I rushed to move the car out of the way in order to set up an alternative foreground for a timelapse.  My heart was racing.  As I moved it forward I heard a horrendous noise from underneath.  Immediately I realised I'd run over my camera bag, which I'd stupidly left in front of the car earlier.  Words were uttered.  Bad words.  It was completely wedged under the floor pans - I had no choice but to keep moving forward to dislodge it, and just hope any damage was limited.  Incredibly, thought the bag took a battering, including the thick metal rods encasing the main compartment, the contents were completely unscathed.  It pays to keep your head when the sky is kicking off - I didn't, but thankfully no serious harm done.

By now the sky was ablaze and this substorm (which I believe may have been an incoming CME) was in full swing.  There were curtains, arcs, flickering pillars, beautiful complex coronoas forming and disappearing overhead, and colours like I've never seen in my life.  It's hard to describe - at times, the mixture of colours in the sky made it look heavily light polluted, but then the colours would separate and it would look truly magical.  I knew this was my chance to get the shot of a lifetime and that these conditions were not likely to last long.

I climbed back down to the side of the stream and opted for a pano with the 14mm, so as to catch as much of the colour in the sky as possible.  The images on the back of the camera were utterly surreal, and I was already looking forward to getting them home on the computer to really see the colours.

Shot with a Canon 6D and Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens. Foreground is single row, 7-shot pano, 30s exposure at ISO3200 and f/4. Sky was 9 shots of 2.5s each at ISO6400 and f/2.8. Foreground and sky panos stitched separately in Lightroom and then blended in Photoshop.  

I've called this image "The Many Colours of Heaven".  The 10 minutes or so that this substorm was in full swing were breathtaking - I honestly never knew the sky could be so dynamic and almost violent in its colour.  I still get goosebumps thinking about it 6 days on. It seems we were in Senja during a particularly heightened period of activity, and this substorm seemed to amaze even very seasoned aurora obervers; just so pleased we were in the right place at the right time.  Hope you enjoy.

 

[clarkpm4242]

So well put!!

2 hours ago, FenlandPaul said:

the shot of a lifetime

Guessing this will be large scale on a wall soon!!

Hope I get to experience similar one day 

Cheers, Paul

P.S.  I presume the individual pano frames were in portrait mode?

Edited October 9, 2022 by clarkpm4242

[FenlandPaul]

3 minutes ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Guessing this will be large scale on a wall soon!!

Hope I get to experience similar one day 

Cheers, Paul

P.S.  I presume the individual pano frames were in portrait mode?

It’s well worth the trip, Paul. Obviously no guarantees of outbursts, but being directly under the auroral oval you at least get something every night it’s clear.

ha! We’ve got some decisions to make re which we print and hang!

Yes they were in portrait orientation. I tend to use a huge overlap with the 14mm because the lens profile can often make panos suffer from dark streaks towards the edge of each frame.’so these were overlapped by around 75%.

[City9Town0]

Fabulous...

[Kon]

Great image. Compared to your photo, how bright was it to the naked eye?

[FenlandPaul]

8 minutes ago, Kon said:

Great image. Compared to your photo, how bright was it to the naked eye?

The best I can describe it is like bright inner city light pollution on a hazy night.  The landscape went from pitch black to very clearly illuminated, albeit we were very well dark adapted.

 Much nicer than light pollution though!

[andrew63]

What a spectacle - words and equipment to do it justice.

[Zummerzet_Leveller]

Spectacular... A little bit jealous!