aurora
Taken by Tom A. Warner on June 22, 2015 @
Devils Tower, Wyoming
Click photo for larger image
| |
Camera Used: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D4
Exposure Time: 4/1
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 3200
Date Taken: 2015:06:26 23:15:06
|
|
| More images
Details:
On the night of 6/22/2015, I experienced something amazing in northeast Wyoming. I drove up to Devils Tower earlier in the evening in anticipation of possible aurora activity from a combination of three Coronal Mass Ejection impacts in the previous 24 hours. Capturing aurora over Devils Tower was a goal of mine for the last 10 years. Unfortunately, clouds and showers were forecast to develop in the area after dark so I knew there was a chance I would not see anything. Also, the latest impact occurred hours earlier so there was no guarantee that the aurora indices would remain favorable.
I setup a time-lapse from my favorite location on the west side of Devils Tower looking east. There are two old trees that make a nice frame for the tower. As darkness set in, clouds began to develop over the area. It was clear to the south so I left the time-lapse running and drove to Warren Peak further south in the Bear Lodge Mountains. This location gives an incredible elevated 360ยบ view whereas Devils Tower sits down in a shallow valley. When I arrived at Warren Peak it was dark enough to see diffuse green aurora to the north and northeast with some distinct green rays. Clouds partially blocked the view to the northwest. I setup another time-lapse looking northeast and started taking various pictures using a third camera. The waxing crescent moon was in and out of clouds to the west with Venus and Saturn leading the way to the western horizon.
After about 30 minutes, I tried to capture a panorama. It took about a minute or so to complete the sequence, and when I looked up from the camera I saw some spectacular magenta rays develop directly north of me. They extended overhead and were simply dazzling. I quickly tried to capture them with my 17 mm lens but had to orient the camera to portrait to get them all in. They continued to grow vertically, and it seemed like the entire sky was filling up with aurora. I quickly switched to an all sky 8 mm lens. I was able to capture a short sequence of images for about 5 minutes before the intensity of the sudden enhanced activity began to fade. In addition, the clouds that were to my northwest rapidly spread over me, cutting me off from seeing the continued activity.
The sudden and extremely intense burst of activity left me awestruck. Unable to see through the clouds in any direction, I drove back to Devils Tower and waited for another hour to see if any breaks in the clouds would develop. No luck. Showers were expanding to my north and moving south toward me. I grabbed my time-lapse camera on the west side of the tower and headed back toward Rapid City periodically checking for any breaks in the skies. Although no breaks developed, I was treated to some weak lightning activity along the way.
The time-lapse sequence that I had captured from the west side of Devils Tower had captured the burst of aurora activity through the partly cloud covered skies before the clouds filled in. It turned out to be a spectacular image sequence.
After 10 years of trying, I was rewarded with a beautiful aurora event over Devils Tower. A true close encounter with something not of this world.
Camera information:
Devils Tower time-lapse
Canon 5D Mark III, 14 mm lens, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 10 sec exposures
Warren Peak time-lapse
Canon 6D, 24 mm lens, f/2, ISO 3200, 5 sec exposures
Warren Peak Allsky time-lapse
Nikon D4, 8 mm lens, f/3.5, ISO 3200, 6 sec exposures
Photographer's website:
http://warnerimages.smugmug.com/Photography/Blog
|
|
|
