Tag Archives: Northern Lights

Northern Lights Dance Over Stewart Lake (Two Harbors, Minnesota)

Year 4,

Lady Aurora came out and danced last night, and I watched her performance in northern Minnesota. The night was dark, and the skies were clear. She waited for the moon to set and then at 10:37 pm the performance began! Wow!

The first photo is a selfie I took 30 minutes into the show followed by a series of eight photographs. With each photograph I have given my camera settings and the time of night. In addition to learning how I changed my camera settings throughout the night, you will better understand how the display progressed over the course of one hour.

  1. Do not pick one set camera settings and stay with them all night during astrophotography
  2. Increasing the ISO settings from 1,600 to 3,200 doubles the amount of light entering my camera, but at the expense of a noisier photograph. You will need to learn for your own camera when a higher ISO setting yields too much noise. However, the higher ISO captures different kinds of light, and is better able to photograph moving Aurora spikes and waves (I often shortened my exposure times)
  3. Conversely halving my ISO from 3,200 to 1,600 decreased the amount of the light entering my camera by 1/2, but given the intensity of the Aurora had brightened this change was required to prevent blown out images in terms of exposure
  4. Note how I was also changing my exposure times. Obviously doubling or halving exposure time increases or decreases the amount of light entering the camera by the same ratio. All things being equal I want small exposure times as this allows me to photograph moving waves of Aurora light.
  5. My camera and other settings for all of these photographs were:
    • Sony A6000
    • Rokinon 12 mm manual wide angle lens
    • Aperture = 2.0

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Selfie – 10:54 pm / ISO = 3,200 / Exposure = 4 seconds

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Green Glow – 10:19 pm / ISO = 1,600 / Exposure = 15 seconds. I knew (and hoped) a display was in the offing. I had arrived at Stewart Lake at 9:30 pm, and the “green glow’s” intensity was increasing … generally a good sign.

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Intense Bands – 10:35 pm / ISO = 3,200 / Exposure = 6 seconds.  A highly defined band was now apparent, which often proceeds a storm.

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Storm Starts– 10:37 pm / ISO = 3,200 / Exposure = 6 seconds. The dance / sub storm has just started!

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Storm Continues – 10:37 pm / ISO = 3,200 / Exposure = 6 seconds. The dance / sub storm continues! The waves have moved a bit to the right.

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Intense Storm – 10:42 pm / ISO = 1,600 / Exposure = 8 seconds. Major storm in progress. This is fives minutes after the previous photograph. Note that I have now almost halved the the amount of light I am allowing into my camera.

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Intense Storm – 10:43 pm / ISO = 1,600 / Exposure = 8 seconds. Spikes!

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Selfie – 10:54 pm / ISO = 3,200 / Exposure = 4 seconds. Back to my selfie, but in sequence. This photo actually allows the same amount of light into the camera as the previous image. I doubled the ISO, but halved the exposure time. This allowed me to photograph moving objects … the Aurora’s waves and me. Try standing perfectly still for eight seconds … which is why I went to this setting for four seconds.

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Intense Storm – 10:58 pm / ISO = 3,200 / Exposure = 4 seconds. Some major spiking going on!

Stewart Lake Northern Lights Storm Ending & Clouds Rolling In – 11:18 pm / ISO = 3,200 / Exposure = 6 seconds.

Start to finish, these photographs span a period of 59 minutes. I left Stewart Lake shortly after this final image.

Optimizing Your Probability of Seeing Northern Lights

Year 4

Here is an educational Aurora Borealis post. If folks ask the question, will the Northern Lights be active on a certain date in the future, here is information which will help you with trip planning.

While some folks may have different opinions, if I were planning a trip to the Lake Superior Region, Alaska, Norway, Iceland, etc. with the hopes of also viewing the Northern Lights as part of that trip, I would take into account the following information before choosing trip dates:

  1. September would be my first choice of months due to increasingly longer nights, and stable weather.
  2. October and March would be my second choices for months as nights are long, but weather tends to be a bit more suspect … cloudy nights.
  3. Any other month between November and February, inclusive.
  4. I would avoid the Summer months due to short nights in terms of darkness, and no darkness if you travel far enough north. However, Northern Lights do dance in the Summer. I have personally watched great Aurora displays in northern Minnesota in early August (see example). True darkness at night occurs approximately between two hours after sunset and two hours before sunrise.
  5. I would browse to SpaceWeather.Com and check their 28 day cycle long range forecast (scroll down on page linked immediately below). I have included an annotated screenshot to show you what I mean.
  6. Remember, the sun’s cycle is about 29 days, while the moon is about 28 days. Long range Aurora forecasts are based upon the recent Solunar Cycles. If sunspots were occurring about 28 days ago, there is a decent chance there may be sunspot activity today. Sunspots with CME’s directed towards earth cause Auroras. (CME = Coronal Mass Ejection)
  7. If you have to plan more than 28 days in the future … choose dark nights (duration of dark sky each night plus moon phase) and stable months in terms of weather. Really bright moonlight tends to wash out the any possible good viewing of the Northern Lights.

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Always Look in the Rear View Mirror!

Year 4

Last night the Northern Lights numbers skyrocketed, but viewing was difficult due to the almost full moon, and ground fog forming from the 37F temperature. My first stop was Little Stone Lake near Brimson, Minnesota where the Aurora fought with the ambient light from the lingering sunset and almost full moon.

My next stop was a very remote wilderness lake deep in the Superior National Forest. I struck out on viewing opportunities at the lake due to ground fog caused by 37F temperatures. However while driving home I took a longer glance in my car’s rear view mirror. I noticed the lights were starting to pop. Thus, I found an unknown river and watched a short dance. The river was “in the clear”.