Northern lights!

[Red Squirrel]

Freaking incredible show right now, drove 10 minutes down the highway to get out of city lights and it was incredible. I will share pics tomorrow, I need to get up early tomorrow and it's nearly 2am lol. But if you see this, go check it out if there's no clouds!

I heard that Iceland was suppose to get a huge show so figured I'd go check here.

Crappy phone pic of camera's LCD screen for now. (I posted it on FB while I was in middle of nowhere, gotta love modern tech lol)

EDIT Link to actual pics from camera: http://imgur.com/a/53Skb

 

[darkswordsman17]

Jealous. Its the main thing I want to visit both of the poles for. I really wish I had the money to buy a good setup and shoot VR/3D aurora video and high res shots.

 

[John Connor]

Living 30 miles south of Canada I seen Northern Lights a lot. Pretty neat. Not so good for shortwave. LOL

If you have a FTP server, you can upload the image from your phone with the AndFTP App. Best App I ever used. It's full of features. I use a Dell Mini 810 netbook who's SD card is the FTP storage. It's been running 24/7 for three years now.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Proper pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/53Skb

 

[PJFrylar]

Nice pics. Seeing the northern lights is something I've got on my to do list.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Highly recommend. It's definitely nice to be able to practically see them from my driveway. (there's a street light right there so technically have to cross the street. ) Most of these were taken further down on the highway though just to get away from all the lights. It was actually a really good night to do that, I need to do it more often. In summer you'd get eaten alive by mosquitoes but they're gone at this time of year.

 

[Paladin]

Nice! What camera setup did you use for those?

 

[repoman0]

Very cool. I saw them in Iceland earlier this year, but they weren't as intense as these. I also didn't have a proper tripod yet, so unfortunately there was a bit of camera blur from the cheap unstable tripod I was using ...

 

[Red Squirrel]

Nikon D7000 on tripod, and was using remote shutter so I don't have to touch the camera. These are taken in a lot of various settings, lot of them were taken at about 20 sec exposure and rather low ISO, and some at a faster shutter speed and higher ISO. I tend to experiment a lot then pick what looks best. High ISO tends to look nice on the camera screen then you put it on the computer and it's grainy, so I tend to be careful with that, but some of the really high ISO ones I took actually did turn out quite nice, I was in the 2000 range if I recall, I think there might be some in the 5000 range. For the longer exposures I was sticking to like 200-500ish. For northern lights long exposure tends to be better, but when I was getting the beams and the ones that moved I was going for faster exposures.

If I did not have to get up early this morning I totally would have stayed longer, it was actually a pretty awesome spot, except for the occasional transport traffic. I was always a little nervous they don't see my car parked there. There was a ski doo trail and the trees in general were low, so it made for a good shooting spot.

Interestingly the reason I went out to check is because Iceland was getting some pretty crazy ones last night, so figured I'd probably get some here too and did.

 

[IronWing]

Proper pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/53Skb

Excellent, thank you!

 

[Zeze]

I can't believe you posted all these beautiful pics, experience, and crap without actually mentioning the location. I mean, seriously?

Where was this taken- where in Canada?

 

[Red Squirrel]

I can't believe you posted all these beautiful pics, experience, and crap without actually mentioning the location. I mean, seriously?

Where was this taken- where in Canada?

Timmins Ontario somewhere along Highway 655 (just kept driving for a bit until I found a decent spot)

Actually I think I may have found the exact spot, here: https://www.google.ca/maps/@48.5642...4!1sdCvga765igBB0N541DRT8Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

That's just past the sign for the tar plant and I could smell tar where I was.

Only thing is the trees on the left are lacking and I don't imagine they grew that fast since Google came here, but never know I guess.

 

[Drako]

Neat!

 

[Xcobra]

Pretty amazing! I'll need to head up there some day.

 

[purbeast0]

Awesome pics man I'd love to see that in person, probably mesmerizing and you don't want to stop looking. How long do they stay around for and how often are they visible like that?

 

[jcwagers]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing!

 

[John Connor]

Proper pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/53Skb

Wow! Those are pretty crazy.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Apparently we're getting some tonight too. I might go back out again with my fish eye lens to get a different perspective. I was looking at google maps and found a possibly better spot, there's a turn off if I go further and it looks like there's a lake and a proper place to park. If there's no lights there it will make a better and safer spot than where I was. I was a big nervous leaving my car parked on the shoulder like that.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Awesome pics man I'd love to see that in person, probably mesmerizing and you don't want to stop looking. How long do they stay around for and how often are they visible like that?

Yeah it's quite mesmerizing to see, and very surreal. I find it's hit and miss as far as how often/how long, basically it's caused by coronal mass ejections so whenever I hear that there is one predicted/ongoing is a good time to check. TBH most of the time I just see some FB post about it and check it out further, and then go outside to check that night. It's nice to be able to see them from my house. My own experience has been they are at their best past midnight. I might go again tonight if there's any. I checked not too long ago and there was nothing, but it's still early.

Sometimes they are also mostly invisible to the naked eye. Last year I was out taking pics around the perseid shower time and noticed they were on, but only showed up on camera. I then drove a bit from the house and got this one:

 

[Spacehead]

Thanks for the pics!

I've seen faint auroras twice here in NW PA & both time were around Halloween. Unfortunately the worst sky glow is to my North so that doesn't help either.

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