Northern Lights
The best aurora display in 20 years
What is it with the clouds this years. Have I not been a good boy? First the solar eclipse, and now the best display of aurora borealis in 20 years. But like the solar eclipse, I just had to carry on with what was given and make the most of it. Clouds and aurora. It turns out that this is quite an interesting combination.
May 10, 2024 - I started seeing local images popping up on Facebook about 10:30 so I headed outside to see what I could see. Yup, the northern lights were getting going, although the clouds were quite heavy directly overhead. I could see the edge of the clouds out to the east. Oh to be twenty miles east on the other side of the Trent River. After a short tussle in my head whether to jump in the car and go chase down a better position, I decide to stay put.
The colours are hard to perceive with the naked eye. When looking for Aurora, it’s best to search the sky with your phone. Set it to night mode if you have that feature and take a few shots. You might be surprised by the results. Our eyes are made up of cones, which we use to perceive colour under bright light, and rods, which allow us to see in dimmer light, but aren’t much good at discerning colour. At night our rods become more dominant and our vision tends toward shades of grey. This fact makes northern light photography a bit of a guessing game. Our cameras definitely have an advantage over our naked eye observations. If the display is especially strong, then you may see colours but don’t count on it.
Given the sky was so cloudy, I thought I would try to introduce a foreground element to the picture. The problem with that is, well, darkness. We have this apple tree east of our house that is currently in full bloom but it was just a silhouette against the sky. I grabbed a flashlight on my way out the door and used it to paint the tree to show it’s bounty of blossoms. I probably spent too long on this part of the project and ended up with a number of variations, which are hard to choose between. The shot above is the least processed of several images I saved from the set.
Getting the balance right between the bright foreground and the clouds and aurora in the background proved difficult. I like this one shot because the hole in the clouds revealed the starry sky behind and an airplane that streaked through the composition over the 10 second exposure. I shot all of these images at 10 seconds, F1.4 at ISO 160 with my Viltrox 13mm, about a 20mm lens in 35mm equivalency. Those are typical settings I use for starlight, so I thought they would work here as well. I ended up boosting the exposure in post by half to a full stop.
By midnight I had moved off our property and down the road to our group mailbox where a better view to the north could be had. I set my tripod up in the middle of the road. Fortunately there was no traffic. I do live in the middle of nowhere after all. I think the clouds actually started working in my favour at this point adding interest even as the display lost much of its red shafts. In addition to the clouds, the stars in this shot help the composition, at least that’s what I make of it. Click to enlarge any of the images to see them better.
The amazing thing about the evening’s display was that you could see it in almost any direction. While the last shot was looking almost due north, this image is looking west south west. The orange glow in the bottom right is the town of Cobourg about half an hour away. We are blessed to live in an area of relatively dark skies.
I parked at the end of a very long driveway to my neighbours house. There are actually two homes at the end of this drive that leads down through a valley and up on to a nearby hillside. You can see the lights in the distance.
I could have stayed out longer. Apparently the display picked up again after 2 PM. Predicting intensity in the display is something of a science and there are some phone apps which help, but still you must interpret what they are telling you.
Being now the wee hours of the morning, I decided to pack it in. As I write this, the skies have been clearing out from a full day of clouds and rain. Last evening was a washout, but tonight still holds some promise. I may add to this set if a second event occurs tonight. I have seen so many fantastic images over the course of the day, from people all over including many here on Substack.
The Northern Lights are a must see if you ever get the chance. No picture really does them justice as the naked eye experience is quite different from the images we capture with our cameras, but these too have value and they encourage others to look skyward and marvel at the magic of our solar system.
Ikiuq by The Jerry Cans
From Iqaluit, Nunavut Canada - 2016
Love the combination of clouds and aurora that you captured - agree with Paul Glover that your photographs stand out from the many others I have seen. I appreciate you pointing out the difference between viewing them with the naked eye and with the camera, I had presumed everyone was enjoying these saturated colored skies! Love that the camera can be a tool to see if the aurora is even happening to begin with - fascinating.
I honestly really like the mix of clouds and aurorae you ended up with. They're a little different to the other eleventy billion images I've seen over the last few days! "Midnight" is stunning, actually.
Wasn't able to get out to have a look Friday evening, unfortunately. I did take a quick look out a few times but our view to the north is, well... it's a 400-foot rise in elevation over about 500 feet of distance (we're at 2600 feet elevation on the south slope of a 2900 foot "mountain" with another 100 feet of trees all over it; north is something which happens to other people!)
Saturday night I did drive up to a nearby overlook, but was probably a couple of hours too late. I took a photo anyway, because why not.