Fighting the Clouds…
As an avid, self-proclaimed Space and Weather geek (along with my general love of photography), I thoroughly enjoy any naturally-occurring phenomena, and the challenge of trying to capture images of it. On one night, back in June of 2009, I had the opportunity to photograph the aurora borealis from the golf course just down the road from where I live. I took several that night, and here’s my favorite, un-edited pic.
I’m always visiting www.spaceweather.com, looking to see what the current and predicted conditions will be for aurora, comets, meteor showers, etc. I find it’s a great resource.
I had been anticipating the potential event for several days, and was checking the forecast constantly. My area had been destined to be mostly cloudy, and I knew that getting any quality photos would probably prove fruitless. I work overnights in my “real” job. My workweek ends Friday mornings at 6am and typically have the weekend off. Each weekend I’m torn. I would love to pass out and catch up on much-needed sleep, but if I do, I’ll end up sleeping away one of my days off. So, I tend to stay awake on Fridays for as long as I can.
By the time the evening had rolled around and I had cooked dinner for my family, I checked the conditions once again. I was absolutely amazed at what I saw!
Some Background on what it takes for me to see the Northern Lights
For my latitude, several things have to come together in order for me to see the lights. These include the Kp Index, the Bt, and Bz. These numbers are best explained here. These can get pretty technical. In layman’s terms, where I live I need to see a Kp index of 5 or greater, and a Bz of -10 in order to to have a chance at seeing anything. On top of that, I need clear, dark skies with no cloudcover and no light pollution (like from the moon).
So, as I would have loved to go to sleep, when I looked at the current conditions, I had to chug an energy drink, fire up my half-charged camera, and hit the road! The Kp=9 (the highest number possible). I’ve seen 9 a few times, but it’s VERY rare. The Bz was fluctuating, but was very, very negative. I had never seen the Bz as low as it was. It was bouncing around between -25 and -35! The moon was low in the sky and setting quickly and less than 14% was illuminated. …the only problem was the cloud cover.
I drove off to a spot that I thought would have great views of the horizon to the due north. I ended up at the Richardson-Zlogar Cabin located in Northfield, MA on the New England Trail. The good news is that it’s elevated and offers fantstic views. The bad news is that it doesn’t face due North. …it faces more East-Northeast. Whoops.
I left home at dusk and arrived shortly after it had gotten dark. I had set my camera preset up to Manual mode, with a 10-second exposure, and the lowest aperture possible. The ISO I had set at 800 to start with. I had it mounted on a tripod and a remote shutter for as little vibration as possible. I unfortunately was forced to use a 28-300mm lens that was pretty slow at F/3.5. My17-55 F2.8 has issues with its zoom ring sticking and I’ll need to replace it ASAP. (I think I’m going to go with the Sony SAL1650, which has slightly better glass and is weather resistant).
There were several campers up there that were through-hiking, and we chatted for a little bit as it got fully dark and my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I could see light pollution from Keene, NH in the distance, but it was minimal. None of them had seen the aurora before, and while they were intrigued, they were tired and soon went to bed in their tents. I did promise them that I’d wake them if there was anything amazing to see.
It was around this time I started to notice some faint greenish glow in the clouds and in the few breaks that were there. I was surprised to see them off to my far left side, not where I would have expected them. Of course, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t facing due north at this time…
Over the next hour or so, things progressed rapidly! Along with the greens, I started seeing pinks, reds, and purples. When seeing aurora with the naked eye, the colors and brightness are much more subdued than what comes out of a camera due to the ability for the camera to let in a lot more light over a longer exposure period. Some of these pictures below were taken with my cell phone. I honestly couldn’t believe how well my Pixel 7 captured the northern lights!
The reds quickly faded, the aurora that was directly overhead diminished, and the clouds unfortunately filled in. I was realizing that my night would soon be over if I didn’t relocate. I figured I may have better luck by heading back to the golf course closer to my house. It took about 45 minutes to head back to the car and relocate. The clouds were far worse, but there was still a very good green glow towards the horizon. At this point, I had noticed that the Bz had gone positive, which isn’t usually a good sign. It didn’t seem to matter too much, though, as I was still able to snag the following shots through a break in the cloudcover.
Here’s a zoomed-in shot at the hole in the clouds. Still was able to make out some pillars and curtains.
This next shot isn’t a photo that I would have kept or posted, but I do like the fact that I caught a meteor towards the horizon.
The clouds ended up getting worse, and there was only one break in the clouds almost directly overhead. I couldn’t make out much, but there was a definite glow still, and I was able to take a few pictures of the Big Dipper, aglow in the highest extent of the aurora at this time.
It was getting late. It was around 2:30am, and we were planning on making the 3-hour drive to Cape Cod in the morning for a quick weekend getaway. I needed some sleep. It seems that there was another great burst of color around 3:30-4am, but I was fast asleep by then. Who knows how the clouds were then?
If I had to do it again, I would have probably just went to my go-to location at the golf course right from the start. Deep down, I knew it was a great location, but I didn’t want to get the same pictures I did back in 2009. I wanted a different background. I do like the silhouettes of the trees, but I wish that I was able to take the pictures with them looking due north.
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