Happy New Year!
Well over an hour into the new year 2013, I wish everybody a very prosperous and
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year from Narvik!
Spooky!
Not much tricking or treating here tonight, but we got a visit from these spooky charachters, and found it wisest to treat them with something sweet. It worked! “Knask eller knep” is the equivalent to the English “Trick or Treat”, only that the words have been switched around. Knask=Treat and Knep=Trick…
Halloween visit on Ankenes, Norway
Report from last night – Tonight G1..!
I am crazy busy today – but I just popped by my blog to show my readers an example of last night activity. The Kp-index was steadily around five, which at these latitudes is high (northern lights activity normally starts at Kp 2/3. Tonight there is a geomagnetic storm coming with an estimated strength of G1 (the scale goes from G0 – no activity to G5 where all hell breaks loose and satellites gets their curcuitboards fried and powergrids here on Earth fails).
Unfortunately there were strong winds and quite a bit of rain and partly cloudy yesterday. But still the build up to the storm was quite obvious in between the clouds!
Strong Auroral Activity is seen in between the Clouds last night.
And another one from yesterday!
Aurora borealis above the Ofoten Fjord with the mountain Veggen in the background as seen from Ankenes yesterday.
Fantastic aurora!
Standing there in the darkness – jumping up and down like a little kid at Christmas – and shouting -Yes! and Aaaah!, I probably look quite silly for a grown man, but every occasion like yesterday is exactly like Christmas to me! The Aurora borealis – Northern Light is so awe-inspiring that I wish all the japanese, Korean and Chinese tourist here in Norway could see it! They really are memories for a lifetime. Last night Kp-index was 3 (2 and above means chances to see northern lights at these latitudes). Today the Kp is even higher, at 5 – so I am soooo hoping for equally crisp, clear skies and even bigger lights!
I managed to get great many shots yesterday. And I had company. Danielle came down to the water with her boyfriend and I helped her getting into the fine techniques of shooting Northern Lights photographs.
And another bonus last night was the swarms of beautiful meteorites. I belive it must have been the orionides that should be passing just these days. Although my camera was pointed in the wrong directions, when I got home, I found that actually three of my photos had captured these beautiful sights. My head was obviously pointing in the wrong direction at these points, as I didn’t see them until I started flipping through the shots.
Well, here is a tiny fraction of last night’s phenomenal photo shoot. Enjoy!
Northern Lights stretching all the way form to the North of Narvik and all the way to the South-West above Vestfjorden. To the left Ankenes, and to the right Veggen and Forratangen. In the center Kjeldebotn.
Strong meteor (shooting star) between the lighthouse in Ankenes and aurora.
Northern Lights above the Narvik peninsula last night
Northern Lights photographer Danielle catching the last of the show
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
Second Day of Summer
14. April is – according to the ancient Norwegian calendars, Runic Calendars (primstav) the first day of summer. Hence today would be the second day of summer. As you can see, the fjord today is calm like on a beautiful summer day – but the snow reveals that we still have som way to go before the spring feeling turns into a summer feeling…
Second Day of Summer by the Ofoten Fjord
And – it’s been a beautiful day, too
Ofoten Fjord this lovely spring day
Update March 18. 1200 zulu time – My Heart goes out
On a weather worn flagpost the State and War flag of Norway is flying at half mast.
His Majesty the King of Norway, fellow officers and the chaplain has just finished the memorial service at the Evenes Air Force Base, commemorating the loss of five fellow officers.
My heart goes out to the families of the loved and lost crew. I also send my thoughts to all the personnel that have risked, and still are risking their lives in order to bring home the lost crew from an altitude of 2 kilometers. They have defied hurricane winds, snow, visibility of – sometimes just a few meters – dodging the avalanches that has come down the mountains, as they battled for days to rescue the lost crew.
Now – unfortunately – all hope is lost…
The Norwegian flag flying on half mast at Evenes Airstation, in connection with the memorial service for the norwegian Hercules crew that crashed in Kebnekaise (photo: Norwegian Armed Forces)
Five Stars Fell
Remembering Hercules C-130J "Siv" and the crew of five
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