"A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders." -Lord Dunzany

Archive for 24. January 2012

The New Record and The Waiting Game

Today my blog has reached a new time high! My last entry about with the Northern Lights photos has shot through the roof! Right now we are experiencing the biggest Sun Storm since 2005. This is really bad news for communication and navigation satelites. It is not very healthy being an airline passenger or crew neither. But for watching spectacular lights in the night sky, it is great. Right now there’s a lull in the activity, but as the Earth rotates a little bit more, we in Northern-Norway will be right on the backstream of the charched particles from the Sun.

I have already shot a few photos tonight and are waiting for more. Unfortunately there is a lot of clouds right now. And since it’s rather cold, people are throwing birch into the fireplaces – like ther was no tomorrow – which produces a lot of smoke particles which scatter the light even more.

I hope you enjoy these preliminary shots of tonights show!

 


Stunning auroral activity!

Yesterday was a fantastic night! All one could hope and dream for! Often times the Earth’s magnetic field pushes so hard back against the Sun’s magnestic field, that the particle from solar bursts never enter the ionosphere to create this spectacle. But yesterday was – luckily – a day when the magnetic field lines let slip particles deep down into the ionosphere to create these breathtaking views. With the good help of my friend Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen, I managed to process the final details of my RAW photos to stand out like they are seen.

Enjoy!

Seen straight up!