More Auroras from yours truly

Amazing Images, a friend went on holiday a few weeks ago to Lapland and only saw the Northern Lights for around 2 minutes in a 2 week stay !

What sort of exposure times do you use, or any other gadgets / trickery as every time I do long exposures of stars I always get star-shift due to this planets tendency to want to rotate

Tony

so pretty

wish i could see that, nice shot.

tmurphy wrote in post #7161127
Amazing Images, a friend went on holiday a few weeks ago to Lapland and only saw the Northern Lights for around 2 minutes in a 2 week stay !

What sort of exposure times do you use, or any other gadgets / trickery as every time I do long exposures of stars I always get star-shift due to this planets tendency to want to rotate

Tony

for example try Exposure:10 - 30 sec, Aperture:f/2.8, ISO 600-1600

I'm glad you both like.

this is very well done. Great shot!

Thanks ben!

Very beautiful. I wish I was in an area that I could see something that beautiful...

Cheers,
HP

For me it's so natural to see...when I go down south and you guys have no winter, I wonder how that's possible too lol it's two worlds apart, north and south. The land is so different below the 50th parallel.

Kajuah wrote in post #7209928
For me it's so natural to see...

I'm sure hoping it'll be natural to see... I'm headed to just north of Fairbanks AK for a week in March with my main purpose being to see the lights at least once in my life. If you have any tips on photographing the aurora, I'd love to get the benefit!

Your 10-22 would be the best option, you would think, but don't overlook your 17-55 2.8 - the faster the lens the better. 17 isn't bad, that's about 29 mm of view - just get far back. Though stay away from your 501.4; i tried that thing out it isn't incredible for shooting northern lights with and the range is just too cropped on a 1.6x cam

Make sure you have a deadly steady tripod. Mine is a gitzo carbon fiber with magnesium ballhead. Composition is key when shooting northern lights - they're all beautiful to see but remember the way your camera sees, too, only in stills.

If you can find a nice house or a tree to offer some direction and ground to where your image is, then those would be great compositional elements to create great aurora images from.

Hope it turns out well. Be sure to check the forecast, too, best results are in partly cloudy/clear weather. Don't forget to put the camera down (don't use LCD viewing by the way, much better to compose using the viewfinder) and enjoy the splendour. There are thousands of northern lights' images out there being sold for profit and just enjoyed, it's a once in a lifetime event for some people however.. be sure to make sure you enjoy it.

Kajuah wrote in post #7211279
Your 10-22 would be the best option, you would think, but don't overlook your 17-55 2.8 - the faster the lens the better. 17 isn't bad, that's about 29 mm of view - just get far back.

I'll keep both close at hand, thanks.

Kajuah wrote in post #7211279
Make sure you have a deadly steady tripod. Mine is a gitzo carbon fiber with magnesium ballhead.

I have a Gitzo 1541 CF with Markins Q3T head. That should work.

Kajuah wrote in post #7211279
Don't forget to put the camera down... it's a once in a lifetime event for some people however.. be sure to make sure you enjoy it.

The best advice of all. Thank you!

So that far north, how often do the Northern Lights usually occur? Is it like a nightly thing? Are there "seasons" to it? I from Iowa, and I've only seen them once in my 21 years so far. Good thing is though, I'm still young and I have plenty of time left in my life to travel.

bonzi13 wrote in post #7213061
So that far north, how often do the Northern Lights usually occur? Is it like a nightly thing? Are there "seasons" to it? I from Iowa, and I've only seen them once in my 21 years so far. Good thing is though, I'm still young and I have plenty of time left in my life to travel.

From what I've read, the lights are most common around the times of the spring and fall equinox (mid-September, mid-March), and the Fairbanks AK Convention and Visitors Center says: "Clear skies and darkness are essential to see the northern lights. If you stay 3 nights in Fairbanks, you have an 80% chance of seeing them." I wouldn't count on being able to sue them for breach of promise, but those are pretty good odds. More from that site:

When is the best time of the year to view the aurora?
In Fairbanks, observations of the aurora may be made from middle to late August to middle April. The spring months of January, February, March and April are often the best time to view the aurora because of better weather, however, Fall can be just as cooperative weather-wise. The truth of the matter is, the northern lights can occur almost anytime.
What time of the day is the best time to see the aurora?
The time for viewing is between evening and morning civil twilights on clear or partly cloudy nights. Major storms can occur anytime, and local intensification is most common between 10 pm and 2 am.
Why Fairbanks?
Fairbanks sits under what is called the auroral oval, a ring shaped region around the North Pole where auroras occur. Statistically, Fairbanks averages 243 nights per year when it is possible to see the aurora.