Aurora Duh.....

[dockothebay]

Last week I got all excited about the Aurora forecast - I was up at the cabin (Hackensack) and the skies were clear all day. Some wispy clouds rolled in and I spent 30 or 40 minutes on the dock waiting to see something, adjusting my camera settings & swatting mosquitos. The sky was kind of light, but I wasn't seeing any color. I went back in the cabin, but checked the skies every 15 minutes or so until about 1:30. I finally went to bed thinking there just wasn't much of a show. When I looked at my "set up" shots the next day I was surprised to see the Aurora peeking out! These are not good aurora images at all, but were a great learning experience for me, and maybe other beginners can learn a bit as well! Next time......

ISO 2000; f 2.8 and 30 seconds. I had to do some adjusting in post processing to get this much color. Next time I'll start at 20 seconds and ask the neighbor to turn out his yardlight!

Bonus shot of the Big Dipper ISO 2000, f/2.8 and 15 seconds

So glad that we will have more of these events to look forward to this year and next!

[finnbay]

Very nice, Jackie! Sometimes I'll only see a little glow on the horizen, but will snap a few shots anyway and am always surprised at how much more he camera sees than I do!

[Dbl]

The camera DEFINITELY sees more than the naked eye!

This is from Sunday night just north of the cities, light pollution all around and clouds moving in. This is what the camera picked up and I could barely see it. I believe ISO 800, f4.0 and 20 seconds.

[ReelMeInn]

Hi Jackie, This is Deb from the photo workshop in Ely. Well I finally did it sign up on HSO, after viewing for 1 year....

Well you did better than I did, I was all set to go photo graph the northern lights and then in the back of my mind I was thinking about the bear that has been roaming in the area...so I guess I chickened out! Maybe I find someone in the area next time and shoot with them, heck the bear could not eat both of us! haha

I enjoyed your photos too.

[dockothebay]

Hi Deb!! Thanks. I just made lots of noise on the way to the dock to scare the racoons away - we have a bear too, but he hasn't been around for a few weeks that I can tell.

Dan and Ken, Thanks too - I should have taken lots more shots while I sat on the dock -- just never realized what I was looking at, I kept expecting to see a little more color/light. Nothing to be done about it now, I'll be more ready next time!!