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Tonight, tonight, maybe tonight…

The conditions are good! Clear skies and moderate particle stream from the sun, so my camera is set, my wool clothes are all ready. Tripod? Check! Extra battery? Check! Flash light? Check! All systems nominal. Go, no-go for northern lights! WE HAVE A GO FOR AURORA BOREALIS!

In the news today we saw that 45. million readers have seen the Facebook page for Visit Northern Norway – and yet again my friend Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen lundeimages. com made the frontpage with one of his stunning photos, the very photo I got his permission to show here to the right! It is an absolute beauty of a northern lights shot! The photo is taken in Bø in Vesterålen (Boe in Vesteraalen) – the beautiful group of islands between Lofoten and the main land.

Visit Northern Norway Facebook page – click here

45 million visits to Visit Northern Norway (Norwegian)

Northern lights? -straight up, please!

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 12. October 2012 | Categories: 3-Autumn, Astronomy and Athmospheric Physics, Facebook, Friend's Achievements, From the archives, Geophysics, In the News right now, Long Exposure, Meteorology, Nature's Delight, Other Bloggers, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Physics, Science & Technology, Seasons, Travel | Tags: Aurora, Aurora Borealis, Aurora statistics, Battery, battery check, Camera, Clear conditions, Clear weather, Extra battery, facebook, Flashlight, Go, nature, No-go, Nordlys, Nordlysbilleder, Nordslysbilder, Northern, Northern Lights, Northern Norway, Particle flux, Particle stream, science, sun, Systems nominal, Tripod, Wool, Wool clothes | Leave a comment

Partly cloudy – but still a few nice in “the bag”

I was hoping for clear, crisp weather and maybe a combined northern lights shots and a meteor from the Draconids – wich is the hot topic in tonight’s sky. I saw three really nice shooting stars, but ales, didn’t capture them. I would probably have caught some more, if it wasn’t for the clouds. I caught a few nice though! It was really the AHHHH!-moment of my Northern Lights watching career – but it was nice anyway.

At one point I managed to do a long exposure of Widerøe’s Flight WF855 (Dash 8-100) from Narvik taking off from Narvik Airport at 1010 pm (GMT+1). Funny how the landing lights and strobes made a nice pattern across the beautiful moonlit scene.

Widerøe's (Wideroe) flight WF855 taking off from Narvik Lufthavn 22:10 local time. Ankenes Lighthouse in the foreground. Narvik City in the background.

Widerøe’s (Wideroe) flight WF855 taking off from Narvik Lufthavn/Airport at 22:10 local time. Ankenes Lighthouse in the foreground. Narvik City in the background.

Tonights Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) reflected in the Ofoten Fjord with a couple of iron ore bulk carriers at anchor waiting for service.

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 8. October 2012 | Categories: 3-Autumn, Astronomy and Athmospheric Physics, General Information, Geophysics, Just for fun, Long Exposure, Nature's Delight, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Photographic Art, Physics, Seasons | Tags: AHHHH!-moment, Ankenes, Beautiful moonlight, Clear weather, Clouds, Crisp weather, Dash8-100, Draconids, Flight WF855, Landing lights, Lighthouse, Meteor, Meteor shower, Narvik, nature, Nice, Nordlys, Nordlysbilleder, Nordslysbilder, Northern Lights, outdoors, Pattern, Sky, Strobe lights, transportation, travel, Widerøe | Leave a comment

Hoping for that spectacular night

One of the great joys of photography, is to flip through old shots and rediscovering details you didn’t see the first time. This shot was taken on the January 23. 2012. Tonight there is a clear and rather crisp sky (although I had been hoping for a little less humidity in the atmosphere) – so – who knows – maybe it is going to be one of those spectacular nights again..?

Northern Lights above Ankenes January 23. 2012

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 7. October 2012 | Categories: 4-Winter, Astronomy and Athmospheric Physics, From the archives, Geophysics, Long Exposure, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Physics, Seasons | Tags: Atmosphere, Aurora Borealis, Clear conditions, Humidity, January 2012, January 23. 2012, Joy, Joys of photography, Nordlys, Nordlysbilleder, Nordslysbilder, Northern Lights, photography, Spectacular night, Tonight | Leave a comment

All that is forbidden

Well, in this day and age where being insulted is a popular passtime and freedom of speech is under an equal duress as under Hitler’s Germany – wonder how long this shop – which forms the very entrance to the international area at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen – is allowed to sell alcohol before it is declared and insult to the new master race – or should I say master ideology..?

I observed the gardeners as they planted these beautiful “hanging gardens” with the most amazing plants and flowers earlier this summer. At a later visit I took the opportunity to take a few shots (with my camera, not from the contents of the shelves) of this architectural Pièce de résistance. And all the shelfs are actually made out of solid wood. A rarity in this politically correct IKEA-age. The ceiling of elegant lamps form waves of light resembling northern light, and the shapes of the shelf-modules draws your attention to the steep mountains in Norway.

This is really a masterpiece, and as you venture in through the shop, a small carving into the wood makes you go: -Ahh, but of course – Snøhetta – and their brilliant architects designed this sinful landscape in all it’s glory – and did an absolute excellent job at it! I would say traveling abroad from Norway via Gardermoen, will give you an excellent opportunity to study these lush gardens and ravishingly beautiful designs. In the mean time, feel free to enjoy my photos – and those of you who are insulted by this – go do something useful, like dig a hole in the sand.

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 7. October 2012 | Categories: 2-summer, General Information, Opinion, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Travel | Tags: amazing plants, Architect, Architectural Pièce de résistance, Beautiful design, Freedom of speech, Hitler's Germany, Insult, Insulted, Northern lights lamp, Oslo Airport Gardermoen, Oslo International Airport, Snøhetta, Solid wood, travel, Wood | Leave a comment

Aurora Borealis again – excactly 1 year after

Incidentally exactly one year ago I was also shooting Aurora Borealis – Northern Lights photos. I recall the conditions were somewhat better than today, but still, I am not complaining. I shot a few, but this was – if not the best – the most interesting because of the perspective. The aurora is partly obscured by a cloud.

Aurora borealis is formed some 80 – 3-400 km above Earth Surface by charged particles from the sun that excites atoms in the ionosphere. When the electrons in the excited atoms falls back again to lower states of energy, they release the energy, from the collision with the particle from the sun, in the form of a photon which is the light waves/particles that we observe as light on our retina.

Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis tonight above Ankenes

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 1. October 2012 | Categories: 3-Autumn, Astronomy and Athmospheric Physics, Geophysics, Long Exposure, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Physics, Seasons | Tags: Amazing Natural Phenomenon, Ankenes, Ankenesstrand, Aurora Borealis, beautiful, Beautiful Sky, Charged particles, Earth Surface, electrons, Energy, Ionosphere, light, light waves, Narvik, Nordland, Northern Lights, Northern Norway, Norway, Particle, particles, Photon, retina, science, sun | Leave a comment

The Winter Creeps up on us – or should I say down

Took this photo today of the Roasme Mountain range, and winter is just 1,000 meters away from us now. Soon we’ll be engulfed by the magic of snow..!

Winter is coming – the snow coveres mountain peaks gets whiter by the day

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 23. September 2012 | Categories: 3-Autumn, General Information, Meteorology, Nature's Delight, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Physics, Science & Technology | Tags: 000 meters, 1, Ankenes, Autumn, beautiful, Beautiful Landscape, Beautiful Sky, Iron Ore Carrier in port, Narvik, Narvik City, Narvik Harbor, Natures Delight, Ofoten, Ofoten Fjord, photography, RAW, Roasme, Roasme plataeu, Sky, snow, The Magic of Snow, weather, winter, Winter is coming, winter scene | Leave a comment

Et Voila!

I reported on clear skies and a hope for northern light yesterday. And my dreams came through! Here is the first of the photos. It was a “flash” at the beginning of the show, and the reason why I picked this, is simply because of the really cool reflections in the fjord. This was taken at 20 seconds exposure, which makes it kind of blurry, but still it came out nice with a little adjustments for white balance.

Northern Lights behind clouds reflecting into the Ofoten Fjord. Narvik peninsula to the right.

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 13. September 2012 | Categories: 3-Autumn, Astronomy and Athmospheric Physics, Geophysics, Long Exposure, Nature's Delight, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Physics, Science & Technology | Tags: Aurora, Aurora Borealis, Beautiful Landscape, Beautiful Scenery, Beautiful Sky, fjord, Narvik, Narvik Harbor Basin, Narvik peninsula, nature, Northern Lights, Ofoten, Ofoten Fjord, Reflections, travel, weather, White balance | 2 Comments

Northern Lights Alert

…well it isn’t – Northern Lights Alert, that is.. But as you can see from this image shot and hour ago, the conditions are clear, and even though the statistics for aurora tonight (se graphic to the right) isn’t way up in the red end of the scale – I’m hoping to see and maybe shoot a photo of the first aurora this fall.

Clear skies tonight – hoping for aurora

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 12. September 2012 | Categories: 3-Autumn, Astronomy and Athmospheric Physics, Everyday Life, Long Exposure, Nature's Delight, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Physics, Seasons | Tags: Aurora Borealis, Aurora statistics, Calm, Calm Fjord, Clear conditions, fjord, Graphic, Hope, Hoping, Northern Lights | Leave a comment

Flamy Clouds

Was on my way to the store to stock up for det weekend, when I stumbled on this beautiful cloud. So out with the camera, and as it happened, I decided to go for an HDR-photo. So this photo is a composite of 3 photos shot with different exp. comp. (-1 to +1).

Dramatic and beautifully painted clouds above the inner parts of Ofoten Fjord by Ankenes / Narvik (please click photo to see the full size)

Posted by alliumsativum69 | 9. September 2012 | Categories: 3-Autumn, HDR, Nature's Delight, Photo, Photo - processed RAW, Photographic Art | Tags: Ankenes, arts, Clouds, Clouds Reflecting sunligt, Cloudscape, dramatic, Dramatic Sky, fjord, hdr, Ofoten, Ofoten Fjord, photography, RAW, Red sunlight, Sunlight, Sunset, Wild, Wild Clouds | Leave a comment

Silent Night by the Fjord

Shot this composite last night. The growth of forest here on Ankenes is tremendous, but not many seems to care. Thus just popping out to get a shot of the beautiful scenery gets harder and harder due to obstruction of trees.

Anyway, was about to go to bed, when very calm water in Narvik harbor basin lured me with its beautiful reflections to set up my tripod and take a few shots. Unfortunately, a lot of the view is now totally obscured by the trees growing ever bigger around here.