A 360° fish-eye panorama of the odd isolated auroral arc that has become known as “Steve,” here across the bottom as a pink and white band, across the south, with the main auroral oval to the north at top, with its more normal oxygen green arc and upper red and magenta tints, also from atomic oxygen. This demonstrates the relationship of the Steve arc to the main auroral oval — he is always equatorward of the main oval, and defines the southern limit of the display. Auroras are not seen south of the Steve arc. The Steve arc seems to be a thermal emission from hot flowing gas rather than from precipitating electrons. But his origin and nature is still mysterious. This night, September 27, 2017, the Steve arc appeared for only about 20 minutes, from 10:45 pm MDT pm, as the main display hit a lull inactivity. The display later grew to cover the sky with a post-sub-storm flickering display at the zenith and to the south. Steve is always well south of the main oval, and usually only when the main aurora is not very active. The 6-day Moon is just setting at the bottom of the summer Milky Way. The Pleiades is rising at upper left. The Milky Way runs from northeast at upper left to southwest at lower right. The zenith is at centre. This is a 360° panorama made of 6 segments, each with the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 lens at f/1.8 in portrait orienation, and at 60° spacings. Each exposure was 10 seconds at f/1.8 and ISO 2500 with the Nikon D750. Shot from home in southern Alberta on a mild September night. Stitched with PTGui with spherical projection.
A 360° panorama of the odd isolated auroral arc that has become known as “Steve,” here to the left as a pink and white band, across the south, with the main auroral oval to the north at right, with its more normal oxygen green arc and upper red and magenta tints, also from atomic oxygen. The Steve arc seems to be a thermal emission from hot flowing gas rather than from precipitating electrons. But his origin and nature is still mysterious. This night, September 27, 2017, the Steve arc appeared for only about 20 minutes, from 10:45 pm MDT pm, as the main display hit a lull inactivity. The display later grew to cover the sky with a post-sub-storm flickering display at the zenith and to the south. Steve is always well south of the main oval, and usually only when the main aurora is not very active. The 6-day Moon is just setting at the bottom of the summer Milky Way. The Pleiades is rising at far right. This is a 360° panorama made of 6 segments, each with the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 lens at f/1.8 in portrait orienation, and at 60° spacings. Each exposure was 10 seconds at f/1.8 and ISO 2500 with the Nikon D750. Shot from home on a mild September night.
A 360° panorama of a classic auroral arc across the north at bottom, as part of the main auroral oval, and the unusual and still unexplained isolated arc that has become known as STEVE — Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. The Steve arc runs from east (right) to west (left) here and comes overhead at centre. Jupiter is the bright object at upper right. Gemini and Auriga are setting over the house in the west. The Big Dipper is at the zenith at centre. Vega and the summer Milky Way are rising in the northeast at bottom right. I shot this April 10, 2018 from home in southern Alberta, at about 1:50 am MDT. There was still a lot of snow on the ground this April. The Steve display was in its dying moments. It was brighter earlier when I shot a time-lapse. By about 2 am it had faded completely to the eye. The eye it looked white or colourless. The camera picks up Steve’s characteristic mauve or pink colour, different from other auroras. This is a stitch of 12 segments, with the 14mm Rokinon 14mm SP lens at f/2.5 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 6400, for 10-seconds each, with the camera vertical. I used PTGui to do the stitching which it did flawlessly.
