• AlanShlens
    9 months ago

    I heard tonight that the Aurora Borealis was going to be strong, so I went outside onto my balcony which happens to face North and managed to get these. Not bad for the middle of England, I think. Comments invited.

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    JPG, 877.9 KB, uploaded by AlanSh 9 months ago.

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    JPG, 1.0 MB, uploaded by AlanSh 9 months ago.

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    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by AlanSh 9 months ago.

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    JPG, 874.5 KB, uploaded by AlanSh 9 months ago.

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    JPG, 349.1 KB, uploaded by AlanSh 9 months ago.

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    JPG, 400.2 KB, uploaded by AlanSh 9 months ago.

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    JPG, 395.1 KB, uploaded by AlanSh 9 months ago.

  • DanHasLeftForumhelp_outline
    4254 posts
    9 months ago
  • DonaldBpanorama_fish_eye
    2365 posts
  • NCVpanorama_fish_eye
    1948 posts
    9 months ago

    Good to see that you do not have to go to the frozen North to see this wonderful sky show.

    How does it look to the eye? I have read that photographs exaggerate the effects.

  • 9 months ago

    Strange -- I had a Minolta A1 that started making pictures like that. Sony issued a recall for it and replaced the sensor! 😉
    Seriously, will it be even more impressive tonight?

    David

  • 974 posts
    9 months ago

    My daughter woke me up in the night with a phone call to tell me about this. She could see it from her 4th storey balcony very well. I just about made them out from my house. Amazing to see it from London really.

  • 974 posts
    9 months ago

    image.png

    image.png

    PNG, 1.3 MB, uploaded by Wormsmeat 9 months ago.

  • Andrew546panorama_fish_eye
    232 posts
    9 months ago

    Excellent!

    From Scotland:

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    JPG, 212.7 KB, uploaded by Andrew546 9 months ago.

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    JPG, 227.9 KB, uploaded by Andrew546 9 months ago.

  • AlanShlens
    9 months ago

    You hardly see anything with the naked eye. It is very strange. It makes me realise that when I went to Iceland to see the Aurora, it probably was there, I just was expecting it to look like the pictures above, so I didn't try to photograph it.

    Alan

  • Andrew546panorama_fish_eye
    232 posts
    9 months ago

    Depends.

    The eye isn't good with colour at low levels of light and the aurora is typically not that bright, you won't see it on a full moon. You can definitely see it, and sometimes very pronounced. Also when you are under it is like "many flags in the wind" a ribbon that dances and shimmers. It was right overhead for us, and sometimes a little south. This is a rough approximation of how it appeared to the eye, though I missed it's peak where it was far better defined:

    Aurora_natural.jpg

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    JPG, 112.6 KB, uploaded by Andrew546 9 months ago.

  • JohnSheehyRevpanorama_fish_eye
    549 posts
    9 months ago

    That sounds like an expensive oversight. I hope you enjoyed something else to make the trip worthwhile.

    Perhaps the brain interprets it as a variation in lighting color and mostly cancels it in direct perception. If that is the case, it should still be visible and not cancelled in an EVF or on an LCD, as the brain takes what's on them more literally. Think about how you can have mixed "cool" and "warm" lighting in the same room, and you may barely notice the difference in direct perception, but when you photograph it or look at a live LCD or EVF, the difference is more pronounced.

  • Andrew546panorama_fish_eye
    232 posts
    9 months ago

    Simpler than that, in low light the cones fail to work as well especially at the lower energy end of the spectrum. Like in moonlight (reflected sunlight) where red appears black and the eyes peak sensitivity shifts towards green. On the LCD screen it is brighter and we can see the colours more clearly.

  • Quarkcharmedpanorama_fish_eye
    184 posts
    9 months ago

    I've seen aurora australis a couple of times before (it's rare in Australia, as you can imagine, and not every time there's clear sky) and it looked like a faint reddish glow in the south, only visible after a long exposure, 4ex (shot in 2023):
    20231105-IMG_2384-Enhanced-NR.jpg

    But this time it was very prominent and clearly visible with a naked eye:
    20240512-IMG_6903-Enhanced-NR.jpg

    I could see all detail and moving spikes - hoping to do a short time-lapse later on.

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    JPG, 706.2 KB, uploaded by Quarkcharmed 9 months ago.

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    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by Quarkcharmed 9 months ago.