Aurora - Thurso 12th April

[astroman]

There hasn't been much solar activity (or cloud free skies!) recently, but last night we were treated to some nice aurora nonetheless. Below are a couple of pics taken before midnight at Thurso harbour.

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj138/astroman_caithness/Aurora_12thApr2012_2114UT_NRsmall.jpg


http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj138/astroman_caithness/Aurora_12thApr2012_PanoramaVenus_2210UT_NRsmall.jp g

The view was well worth braving the bitterly cold NE wind for.

By the looks of other reports the aurora got brighter a little after midnight, but alas I was tucked up in bed by then :~(

Remember if you have any good aurora pics you'd like to contribute for a display at an aurora event in Caithness Horizons in May get in touch with me (see http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?173551-Wanted-aurora-and-noctilucent-cloud-photos-for-display-at-local-public-event for more info).

[Mystical Potato Head]

The first one has turned out superb,lovely reds.
I had a look out in the garden about 1ish and there were quite a few rays to the North East
but 2 hours in that wind was enough.

[Timber-TEC]

Nice shots Gordon especially first one.
I've got time lapse with aurora close ups.
http://youtu.be/-F9baiNGXcA

[kas]

I missed this, saw the forecast but felt tired so didnt bother. What a mistake.
Beautiful photo.

[astroman]

Thanks all - I was very pleased with the colours in the first one and it was nice to get Venus in the second even if the lights from Scrabster are a bit overexposed.

Nice timelapse Maciek - a little more practice, more aurora and some clear skies and your future posts might look something like this http://vimeo.com/40555466

[Timber-TEC]

Well, I have made an investments to make better time lapses of the night sky by buying better camera and quick wide angle lens (should have them next week) as I was geting more and more frustrated with the final results. Probably reaching level from the movie will get me few years (if ever :) ), but at least I will be not force to produce terrible stitched pictures like this one below from 12 April :)
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/185/panoramafullfilteredres.jpg

[astroman]

The results you're getting are pretty good Maciek. What camera you getting?

[Timber-TEC]

Now, I am using Canon 1000D with kit lens 18-55mm.
This latest aurora time laps was taken with fast 50mm 1.8f prime lens stoped at f 2.8 to cut exposure time and make time lapse smoother, but because this lens has narrow field of view than I have added cheap pseudo fisheye lens which introduced a lot of distortions.

I have managed to process my panorama again, now looks better I think as these stitches are almost invisible.
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9476/panoramafull2.jpg

[astroman]

Yeah, that's much better - can't see the joins now. Excellent result.