The #Karkonosze Mountains in #Poland are usually too far south to see any auroras. But on the amazing night of May 10 - 11, purple and green colors lit up much of the night sky, a surprising spectacle that also appeared over many mid-latitude locations around the Earth. The featured image is a composite of six vertical exposures taken during the auroral peak.
Photographer Mihail Minkov: ‘The concept behind this shot is to highlight the stark contrast between the vastness of the cosmos and the minuscule nature of humanity. The composition intentionally draws the viewer’s focus to a small figure, underscoring our insignificance in the grand scheme of the universe, while the majestic Milky Way core dominates the background.
The image was captured on May 10 during early morning hours from Arlington, Wisconsin, USA. The panorama is a composite of several 6-second exposures covering two thirds of the visible sky, with north in the center, and processed to heighten the colors and remove electrical wires. The photographer (in the foreground) reported that the aurora appeared to flow from a point overhead but illuminated the sky only toward the north.
Fun 28-minute video with a very excited astrophotographer shooting the May 10/11 #aurora at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory outside Cambridge, UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwIlW-sMGo - it includes timelapses but also well-exposed real-time pans, probably the best 'document' of how the event actually looked like to an observer. And if you need more videos, pictures, links: https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2024/05/12/der-starkste-geomagnetische-sturm-seit-2003 got you covered with tons of stuff (with more links being added at the end even today).
I've just uploaded my favourite aurora photos from last weekend to #Flickr. Most are of the "bright fireworks in the sky" variety, that we've all now seen so many of. I'm still thrilled I got to see it.
Here are four of the photos that are a bit different from "landscape with aurora".
This will be the only image of the Aurora that makes my website I think. I specifically planned with a group of friends to meet at this location with hopes of getting the best images we could locally. I definitely think I did well. Extremely pleased with the results!
David Kurtz's morning memo column at the TPM site is always well worth reading, and today, above all, for the wonderful images of the aurora borealis he includes.
I have just found another image from last weekend's auroral display. This was taken at 20:51:58 from Lake Aviemore, New Zealand. It shows one of the lovely aurora corona's seen on the night. #aurora#corona#NewZealand
A photographer's dream. I've been photographing at Mono Lake for many years, and never did I expect to get photos like these, I didn't think it was possible. The aurora came and went for only about 15 minutes with that intensity, shifting colors before vanishing. #Aurora#NorthernLights#MonoLake
All this talk of the aurora borealis reminded me that I contributed a #DND5e creature based on that phenomena to the Scientific Secrets of Icewind Dale compilation on the DMs Guild. It's actually filled with lots of other cool creatures; purchase a copy if you're interested. Here's part of my contribution (there's more lore and some public domain art on the other page)
Aurora colors come from atoms that are trying to shed some of their energy.
In very thin air, oxygen survives in a delicate, high-energy state that emits green light. In denser air, atomic collisions knock oxygen to a lower-energy state that emits red. Nitrogen is a robust emitter that glows bright in even lower, denser layers of the atmosphere.