The colours, man!

Jeeez, you wait years for one and then several come at once... bleedin'
typical!

Well this aurora was even move intense then the last one. At one stage it
looked like we were heading for warp speed - the colours were so intense.
She canna take it captain!!!

The main activity was in the east-west direction but pretty much covered the
whole sky with alot of activity towards the zenith. Not what I would have
expected given that these are supposed to "Northern" lights.

pic1 - "aurora_201103_job1"
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...rora_201103_job1.jpg

This was when the aurora was at it's most intense. About 6:30pm and looking
almost straight up. Streaks of multi-coloured light going in all directions
and quite animated.

pic2 - "aurora_201103_job2"
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...rora_201103_job2.jpg

Looking over the lake towards the village of Lackan. Curtains of green with
lesser amounts of red and pink. Glow from Dublin over the hills to the
northeast.

pic3 - "aurora_201103_job3"
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...rora_201103_job3.jpg

Bridge over the lake that leads to Vallymount. Green fluorescent glow over
much of the sky and reflected on the lake.

pic4 - "aurora_201103_job4"
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...rora_201103_job4.jpg

Pillars of red and some diffuse green.

pic5 - "aurora_201103_job5"
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...rora_201103_job5.jpg

Red and green slanted pillars.

pic6 - "aurora_201103_job6"
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...rora_201103_job6.jpg

Looking across the lake towards the village of Ballynockan. Patches of
diffuse red glow. Orion and Saturn (towards the left in the main red patch)
are on show.

Keep watching the skies, there could be an encore - John

Beautiful pics John.

Out of interest, what camera and settings did you use? - Any photoshop processing?

I had a real problem trying to work out what shutter speed to use. And then the question is; do I muck about with the camera for half an hour trying to get good pics, or do I just sit back and enjoy the show? :lol:

John.

Thanks...

I used a Canon G2, 4 megapixel, F2.0-F8 camera. The optics are great for a non SLR digi-cam and the fast lens (F2.0) helps for low-light photography.

Settings used were mostly ISO50, F2.0, 15sec but I also used ISO100-200, F2.0, 10sec. The faster ISO's help reduce CCD noise.

The pictures are captured as pure RAW data, This means that no processing is done in-camera and I get the CCD data exactly as seen through the lens. A plus for this method is that I get some leeway when converting the RAW data to images in that I can push/pull an image by 1-2 stops, this means more/less light or exposure. I can also fine tune colour temperature - normally with film cameras you might use a specific film type or a correcting filter.

Onto Photoshop... Now I generally want a picture to be very close to what I see out in the field, so a light touch is called for. In this case I used some noise reduction filters, gives the digital pics a more film quality but at cost of adding a little blur, which is fine for night-time shots. I also adjust contrast and brightness and crop for composition. On the bridge picture I had to do a little perspective correction as the wide-open F2.0 lens would show the bridge as slightly curved.

- John

Great pics John. Well done!
Michael

WOW! .. those pictures are just amazing!

I got caught un-awares so I spent the whole time going "I wish I had my Camera".

Bart.

Great photos. I've posted one that was taken in the west of Ireland around 8.00 pm. It was taken on a G3, with much the same settings as John (above)

www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...069529248-aurora.jpg