Auroras
Taken by Daniel Brim on September 12, 2014 @
Trois-Rives, QC (Matawin)
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Camera Used: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D90
Exposure Time: 300/10
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 400
Date Taken: 2014:09:15 17:04:57
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Details:
The aurora and I have an interesting relationship. Living relatively north (eastern MA for the past eight years), and also loving to travel, it gives me an opportunity to see them more frequently than most. At the same time, I live far enough south that it takes some serious work to actually be in a position to view them. That, and the inherent unpredictability of the phenomenon, have led to many failed runs. On several occasions, I’ve viewed the lights and failed to produce my best work while doing so.
The last time I made a serious run to see the aurora was two years ago. I was rewarded with an overhead show with corona, pretty much the peak of what one can ask for. There weren’t colors other than green, but it was fantastic. Seeing them like that just reaffirms the desire to put in the work whenever possible and makes the failures seem like minor setbacks rather than wasted time and money.
On Tuesday, a sunspot erupted and sent a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) towards Earth. On Wednesday, the same sunspot erupted again, sending a second, stronger CME. CMEs are one cause of the aurora, and the timing was fortuitous. The first one arrived on Thursday and sent aurora all the way down to Arizona in some capacity. The CME arriving on Friday was to reinforce the first one, setting the planet up for geomagnentic storming (and thus aurora) all weekend. You’d better believe that this was enough for me to make a run up to Canada.
This photo was taken around 9:15PM on Friday night. I was just getting out of the civilization surrounding the St Lawrence River and getting into the pure un-polluted skies. Aurora already, and I was fortuitous enough for it to catch me in a place where I was able to compose a good photo. The aurora isn’t always cooperative enough to let that happen. I was on the bridge for about 20 minutes (this photo is a combination of five 30 second exposures), watching this slow moving variety of aurora rise and fall.
With the display fading to an extent, I drove further northward into the darkest part of that portion of Quebec. Despite staying awake and searching at some capacity until 3:30 AM (when it clouded over), there were no more aurora. On Saturday, with the Earth still unstable and aurora conditions still favorable, I drove 700 miles to the west to get through a rain storm. No aurora that night, either.
1863.5 miles driven over the weekend, and these 20 minutes were the only time that I was able to see the Northern Lights. It was absolutely worth it. If I hadn’t left work four hours early, I would not have seen them. If Canadian border patrol gave me as much trouble as they usually do instead of waving me through in two minutes, I would not have seen them as I would have still been in the light pollution of the St Lawrence River communities. If I had taken my original planned route, which I changed on Friday morning due to the potential of overcast skies, I would not have seen the aurora due to light pollution. Even with this success, likely my best composed Northern Lights photo to date, there were plenty of opportunities for failure.
There are also opportunities for further success next time. My appetite is not satiated.
Photographer's website:
http://https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbrim/
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