Aurora reflected in the very calm waters of Frame Lake this evening and arching over the Prince of Wales Museum in Yellowknife, NWT, on Sept 5, 2019. The Museum exterior is lit by rippling coloured LED lights that mimic the aurora. The Big Dipper and Ursa Major are above the aurora. The arc of the Lights was brighter earlier on this evening but had faded by the time I got set, but came back somewhat, as I shot here. I shot this from Somba K’e Park. This is a blend of a 10-second exposure for most of the scene, with a 0.5-second exposure for the buildings and flag avenue at right, to reduce the glare from the lights and retain details. All at ISO 800 with the Laowa 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III.
A fragment of a STEVE auroral arc to the northwest over the main observing field at the Saskatchewan Summer Star Party, on August 31, 2019, just before midnight CST. The arc became more sharply defined over the previous 15 minutes, but then faded shortly affter this, though clouds were also moving in from the south. This was seen through a fortunate break in the clouds this night. There was a general wash of a diffuse arc of normal green aurora across the north as well. The Big Dipper is at centre. Kp Index was 5 this this, during a geomagnetic storm. This was from the Meadows Campground at the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Centre Block, south of Maple Creek. This is a 25-second exposure with the 15mm Laowa lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 3200.
The Big Dipper and all of Ursa Major in the deep twilight of an August evening, at Eastend, Saskatchewan, with an old farmstead building in the foreground. Shot August 28, 2019. This is a blend of a single long 5-minute exposure at ISO 400 for the dark ground, and a single short 30-second exposure at ISO 1600 for the bright sky. Both with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750. LENR not applied (by mistake — I forgot!) to the long ground exposure, so I had to employ a Dust and Scratches filter in post to eliminate all the hot pixels on this warm night. Serves as a good demo of why you should use LENR. A mild Orton glow added to the sky, and a mild application of a “Dramatic Landscape” filter added to the ground, both with Luminar Flex.
