Nothern lights . . .

[Steve Foss]

. . . will be HUGE tonight in northern MN. Supposed to be visible all the way down in Illinois/Iowa. If you have clear skies and want to view them, head out as soon as it's full dark. And NO moon to screw up the display.

I won't be out there tonight. Too many other things to do. But absolutely post any of your NL images here. Looks like a wonderful display in the making. And, ahem, 2012/2013 Mayan calendar here we come!

[spivak]

Hope we get to see them. It just clouded up this evening in Duluth. Heard Paul Huttner talking about them on public radio.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collect...ssible_no.shtml

[finnbay]

Here's a few:

[Steve Foss]

I really like that first one, Ken!

[Jim Almquist]

Wow Ken those are absolutely awesome !!!

[yakfisher]

I like the first one as well. We saw them while on our way to Bangor, ME last night. Unfortunately, there was way too much humidity and particulates in the air for us to see the colors you saw. The location you chose was fantastic too.

[eyeguy 54]

Sweet! So how about some hints as to how long to leave my shutter open and some other info. :>)

[dockothebay]

So pretty, Ken! Thanks for sharing

[OnAFly]

All clouds down here Great photos. Where do you get a NL forecaast?

[Slabasaurus]

All clouds down here Great photos. Where do you get a NL forecaast?

NOAA has some details on the "space weather" page.

I found it a long time ago and bookmarked it on my Mac at home, unfortunately don't have much... oh wait a sec....

Space Weather

ha. I found it!

Oh. by the way... the first pic is amazing. Well, I like em all but that first one stands out.

[Dylan33]

I just checked out the space weather HSOforum you linked to...now can you explain to me what I am looking at?

[Jarrid Houston]

even though these are awesome to see, I heard that they are not really a good thing because they mean pollution and depletion of the ozone>>?????anyone elaborate on this for I am no a scientist....but rather a fishermen.

[Dbl]

Ken, beautiful photos! I had a hard time picking between one and two. The best spot for Northern Light activity is the Alaska Geophysical site located Here

You can even sign up for e-mail alerts to help keep track of solar events.

[Slabasaurus]

Ahh ha! good point.

The Aural map on the right is the one for the Northern/Southern lights (although if we see the southern lights up here... we are in some serious trouble). If I look at this and notice MN is blue or orange, I'm tryin to find a spot to get away from city lights and take some pics.

The Storms data (geomagnetic/solar radiation) on the rt side is helpful as well as these are the storms that cause the Aurora borealis. You can click on them, which is interesting, as it gives details as to what the event was. Might be too sceicncy for some, for me, it's not possible to be TOO sciency.

definitely not the most simple stuff. I think if you typed aurora borealis forecast into the search engine of your choice you can find some more easily read sites. Actually the alaska site posted is a good one, I've been there before

[finnbay]

Thanks all! EG2 - I was all over the board last night with settings, experimenting quite a bit. When the were bright I was able to shoot at ISO 800, f/8 and a 10 second exposure. As they dimmed, I peaked out at 1250 ISO, f/4 and a 25 second exposure.

Jarrid - these have been around since the beginning of time. These are a result of what's happening on the sun, not what's happening on the earth.

[jeffreyd]

They saw them all the way to flagstaff az last night. not as brilliant as the pictures but still a great show. thanks for the pictures.

[eyeguy 54]

Thx finnbay! Sure wish i would have been a camera guy when I was in the service in Alaska back in 74. Fantastic lights!

[finnbay]

I remember the late 60's and early 70's as being a very active period for northern lights.

[eyeguy 54]

how late tonight or are they toast?

[goblueM]

I remember the late 60's and early 70's as being a very active period for northern lights.

...i'm going to pass on the obvious joke there

[finnbay]

[captainshane]

Holy cow those cool!!! Really like the 1st one.

[Steve Foss]

Tonight's show was forecast to be as good as last night's but it was not. It was going really well while there was still a fair amount of light in the sky from sundown, but when full dark arrived it had already begun to fall apart.

Here are a few from the evening. Pretty much a bust as far as aurora drama goes, but some very nice colors, and one bonus Milky Way shot with a bit of light painting on the trees.

Makes a fella wish he'd have sprung for an equatorial camera mount so lower iso and longer exposures could follow starts and nebulosity through the night sky. I do love the night stuff.

All were shot with the 5D and 17-40 @ f4, iso3200, from about 50 to 90 seconds on the bulb setting with tripod and remote shutter release.

When the aurora is pretty quiet and steady instead of tall and proud and dancing, these kinds of images are the result. Ideally, the display would have been strong enough that I could have knocked down iso a couple of stops and kept exposures under 60 seconds. Longer exposures cause the stars to blur or make trails.

Probably the durn aurora will flare up and get wild now after I go to sleep.

[finnbay]

Who's goin' to be the sleepy head this morning, Mr. Foss?

[Steve Foss]

I'd have stayed out, but 7 hours of sleep is better than less sleep.

Worst part was, when I got up in the middle of the night for a bathroom trip, the aurora was going strong, including flares high in the sky. I'd have gotten dressed and headed out right then and there if it weren't for our fall color workshop scouting today. Sigh.