I'm bored, let's see your Aurora Borealis pics.

taricha

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
May 22, 2016
Messages
6,970
Reaction score
10,747
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
(not actually bored.) This is a community with a lot of photography talent. Curious how many reefers said good night to the tank and aimed the camera at the skies during the once in a generation solar storm 5/10-12. Post what you got and where you saw it from!
I've always lived in the deep south and have had a lifelong dream of seeing an aurora. So I've had in the back of my mind a far-fetched plan for one day when there's a forecast solar storm with a good enough likelihood, I'll drive 5-6hr north, spend a couple of hours shooting pics, and drive back home and just be miserable at work the next day.
On Thu I found out there was a massive sunspot many times the size of the usual ones, so large that if you had leftover eclipse glasses - you could put them on and simply see the spot on the sun without any magnification. That afternoon, I got home and got this shot with a solar filter and big telephoto lens.
Sunspot3crop_5-9-24_6pm.jpg

You can see the spots in the upper middle are normal sunspot sized, and the bottom is the monster sunspot complex they call AR3664. It's apparently 16x the size of the earth.

By Thu night I ran across the info that previously, that sunspot had sent out 4 x-class solar flares within 24 hr, and although none of them on their own were enough to get excited about, NOAA's spaceweather prediction was estimating that the 4 flares would combine to affect earth in the biggest geomagnetic storm since 2005 - overnight Friday/Sat morning.
So I started telling my wife this might be the one - everything was looking best possible case - skies would be clear, no moon. The predictions got more confident on Fri - the storm started arriving early, auroras were being seen at nightfall in western europe, and the family was persuaded to pack up and get in the car at kid bedtime on Friday night. We'd drive from North MS headed north up to ~4 hr looking for aurora. Hoping that this gave us a shot to see far enough north to catch some aurora high in the atmosphere over the North central US somewhere on the distant horizon.
We didn't even get 2 minutes from the house - as soon as we were on the main highway, we were seeing curtains of red and green in the sky over town. And not low in the sky far to our north - high overhead - like right on top of us.
Here's a handful of my favorite shots. Would love to see yours.

20240510_215019.jpg

20240510_215104.jpg

20240510_215351.jpg



These were all looking East between 9-10pm Fri 5/10/24. I love the mix of colors and structures you can see in those shots.

The thing that is so unbelievable and feels so once-in-a-lifetime about this is how far South the aurora was at this point.
This is what looked like a radiant point where most of the movement and streaks seemed to be coming toward us from. It was overhead TO THE SOUTH - from our point of view in North Mississippi. This means the charged particles were entering the atmosphere in our area hundreds and hundreds of miles further south than even the most optimistic predictions.
20240510_214932.jpg


After 10pm or so, the most insane activity was gone and there wasn't too much to see.

But even as late as 2-2:30am (back at our house - kids in bed) there was still visible red vertical streaks above some lower green if you looked far to the north.
20240511_022704.jpg


Anyway, that was totally nuts. I'd love to see any aurora pics from where you were.
 

Jay Hemdal

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 31, 2020
Messages
28,604
Reaction score
28,261
Location
Dundee, MI
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I've never seen such strong aurora. At first, I thought I was seeing high cirrus clouds, still being lit by the setting sun. My cell phone really enhanced the photos for me.

1715597775105.png
 

Dan_P

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 21, 2018
Messages
7,571
Reaction score
7,962
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Oh, and here's what chemical species are getting hit with the charged particles corresponding to the different colors....
22394.jpeg
Like viewing an ICP-OES test :)
 

ScottD

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 16, 2022
Messages
362
Reaction score
289
Location
CT
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I have to admit, completely spaced out and blew it. I’m still kicking myself about it. I was talking about it with someone at work Friday and then went to bed that night, completely forgetting about it and we had crystal clear skies in the northeast for it. I’ll post a picture that I took a few years ago that happened to get off the Aurora Australis while traveling in the South Island of New Zealand. We were out taking some star pictures and caught some aurora activity. That’s Queenstown in the right side. One of these days I want to stay in the glass huts in Finland to watch it.
20151013-SRD6014-Edit.jpeg
 
OP
OP
taricha

taricha

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
May 22, 2016
Messages
6,970
Reaction score
10,747
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
OP
OP
taricha

taricha

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
May 22, 2016
Messages
6,970
Reaction score
10,747
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I’ll post a picture that I took a few years ago that happened to get off the Aurora Australis while traveling in the South Island of New Zealand.
Sorry this snuck by you. But thanks for the phenomenal pic. Was hoping that somebody might have a pic of the southern version.
 

Thumbster

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
May 2, 2023
Messages
287
Reaction score
195
Location
Indiana
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Here’s a shot of the sun spot a couple days prior to the “big show”. I was pretty excited and ready after having just shot the eclipse at my Indiana home a month prior. Felt like photo opportunities were falling right in my lap.

Fast forward to the night of the Aurora…nothing but clouds all around me.

No biggee I thought, the next night is rumored to be even better AND clear skies in the forecast!

24 hours later I set up next to a pond to capture double the majestic colors that I’ve seen all over Facebook, and waited…and waited. Nothing.

The second pic is the best shot I got of the night.
546A2290.jpeg
IMG_3983.jpeg
 
OP
OP
taricha

taricha

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
May 22, 2016
Messages
6,970
Reaction score
10,747
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Here’s a shot of the sun spot a couple days prior to the “big show”.
Great shot of that massive sunspot.

No biggee I thought, the next night is rumored to be even better AND clear skies in the forecast!
Yeah, for a few hours NOAA's actual forecast was that the next night would be at least as big. Instead, that wave of CME seems to have mostly missed earth.
Space weather is far harder to predict than our normal storms.
 

cameronh

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 11, 2015
Messages
6,773
Reaction score
5,867
Location
GA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
(not actually bored.) This is a community with a lot of photography talent. Curious how many reefers said good night to the tank and aimed the camera at the skies during the once in a generation solar storm 5/10-12. Post what you got and where you saw it from!
I've always lived in the deep south and have had a lifelong dream of seeing an aurora. So I've had in the back of my mind a far-fetched plan for one day when there's a forecast solar storm with a good enough likelihood, I'll drive 5-6hr north, spend a couple of hours shooting pics, and drive back home and just be miserable at work the next day.
On Thu I found out there was a massive sunspot many times the size of the usual ones, so large that if you had leftover eclipse glasses - you could put them on and simply see the spot on the sun without any magnification. That afternoon, I got home and got this shot with a solar filter and big telephoto lens.
Sunspot3crop_5-9-24_6pm.jpg

You can see the spots in the upper middle are normal sunspot sized, and the bottom is the monster sunspot complex they call AR3664. It's apparently 16x the size of the earth.

By Thu night I ran across the info that previously, that sunspot had sent out 4 x-class solar flares within 24 hr, and although none of them on their own were enough to get excited about, NOAA's spaceweather prediction was estimating that the 4 flares would combine to affect earth in the biggest geomagnetic storm since 2005 - overnight Friday/Sat morning.
So I started telling my wife this might be the one - everything was looking best possible case - skies would be clear, no moon. The predictions got more confident on Fri - the storm started arriving early, auroras were being seen at nightfall in western europe, and the family was persuaded to pack up and get in the car at kid bedtime on Friday night. We'd drive from North MS headed north up to ~4 hr looking for aurora. Hoping that this gave us a shot to see far enough north to catch some aurora high in the atmosphere over the North central US somewhere on the distant horizon.
We didn't even get 2 minutes from the house - as soon as we were on the main highway, we were seeing curtains of red and green in the sky over town. And not low in the sky far to our north - high overhead - like right on top of us.
Here's a handful of my favorite shots. Would love to see yours.

20240510_215019.jpg

20240510_215104.jpg

20240510_215351.jpg



These were all looking East between 9-10pm Fri 5/10/24. I love the mix of colors and structures you can see in those shots.

The thing that is so unbelievable and feels so once-in-a-lifetime about this is how far South the aurora was at this point.
This is what looked like a radiant point where most of the movement and streaks seemed to be coming toward us from. It was overhead TO THE SOUTH - from our point of view in North Mississippi. This means the charged particles were entering the atmosphere in our area hundreds and hundreds of miles further south than even the most optimistic predictions.
20240510_214932.jpg


After 10pm or so, the most insane activity was gone and there wasn't too much to see.

But even as late as 2-2:30am (back at our house - kids in bed) there was still visible red vertical streaks above some lower green if you looked far to the north.
20240511_022704.jpg


Anyway, that was totally nuts. I'd love to see any aurora pics from where you were.
Nothing wrong with being bored! Lol.
I was really bored the night I started that thread so instead of hunting down different threads I just brought them all to me hahaha.
Those are awesome photos! I never got to see the lights but got a little eclipse action through my friends setup.
 

Chikpeas

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 19, 2024
Messages
257
Reaction score
333
Location
United States of America
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
old thread… but I’m new here so… new to me?

11E93C99-3ED2-431F-86A8-00BD3CA9044A.jpeg


My phone takes some of The worst pictures known to mankind but…. This is what we saw. And yes sometimes it was really that bright out ❤️ I love northern usa

B937A828-C888-4CD9-A3CE-87F8445F8C48.jpeg
408CADC8-D017-4F35-8226-BAE66C6A6249.jpeg
AC2DF5BD-EAAD-4536-852D-15655A6111D4.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • 12968CAF-6441-414C-BBEB-76CD788C2289.jpeg
    12968CAF-6441-414C-BBEB-76CD788C2289.jpeg
    144.4 KB · Views: 27
OP
OP
taricha

taricha

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
May 22, 2016
Messages
6,970
Reaction score
10,747
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Bumping this.
Auroras returned last night - naked eye visible red and green here in north MS again.
Here's one of my attempts with a Nikon DSLR.
6D673583-C616-4215-898C-39ADBA82456F.jpeg

(Edit: hmm, that nikon pic really doesn't view well on the phone)


And here's just a smartphone capture.
20241010_220858.jpg


would love to see if other reefers caught this again.
 
Last edited:

tobster

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 19, 2024
Messages
181
Reaction score
142
Location
Knoxville
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
From TN
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1335.jpeg
    IMG_1335.jpeg
    95.4 KB · Views: 16
  • IMG_1339.jpeg
    IMG_1339.jpeg
    74.3 KB · Views: 7
  • IMG_1331.jpeg
    IMG_1331.jpeg
    68.7 KB · Views: 18

Fish_Fry

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 2, 2022
Messages
131
Reaction score
168
Location
Denver
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I took this last night near Boulder CO.

I love the way the actinics auroa makes the coral sky pop.
1000018062-01.jpeg



Earlier in the year, I spent 10 days in Iceland on landscape photography tour trying to capture the aurora. The weather & aurora did not cooperate, there was only one night with minor activity. Can't imagine what it was like there last night.
 

ScottD

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 16, 2022
Messages
362
Reaction score
289
Location
CT
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
From CT Thursday night and one from the morning Friday. It was so bright here you could see it with your eye quite well. You could also look straight up and see it above and more than 180 degrees side to side.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4552.jpeg
    IMG_4552.jpeg
    55.9 KB · Views: 13
  • IMG_4532.jpeg
    IMG_4532.jpeg
    56.9 KB · Views: 11
  • IMG_4536.jpeg
    IMG_4536.jpeg
    46.1 KB · Views: 14

HAVE YOU EVER KEPT A RARE/UNCOMMON FISH, CORAL, OR INVERT? SHOW IT OFF IN THE THREAD!

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top