Aurora borealis

The coastal route between Skjervøy and Tromsø is sometimes called Northern lights highway. Most of the time sheltered by islands on the seaward side the chance to see northern lights when the skies are clear is pretty high. In this case they were weak but still beautiful. If they grow even fainter you can have fun admiring the stars. Exposure time 8 sec for the clickable note. Both photos taken with Irix 15mm f/2.4- please view on black!

This was what I had been looking for in my previous photo, 2 hours later the break in the clouds was there:-) Danach hatte ich schon auf dem vorherigen Foto Ausschau gehalten, 2 Stunden später war's so weit:-)

7.52 p.m.- a night of Aurora watching started promising with a low arc and some more green behind the clouds. The idea was to have the northern lights reflected in the water and ice - it was not to be.

3.26 a.m. on Kvaløya, on our way back to the hotel

Shot with Samyang 14mm f/2.8

The purple flash was so sudden and so extremely bright that it caught me unawares. I had no time to stop down or reduce the ISO and got quite a bit of lens flare. Shot with Samyang 14mm at F2.8. Colours of northern lights: Red- oxygen atoms at ca. 200km altitude, visible only at times of high solar activity Green- oxygen atoms at ca. 100 km altitude colliding with molecular nitrogen, the most common colour Blue/ purple - molecular nitrogen at lower altitudes, visible only at highest levels of solar activity and much faster than red and green en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora Das lilafarbene Nordlicht schoß so plötzlich und extrem hell über den Himmel, dass ich keine Zeit mehr hatte, ISO oder Blende anzupassen (deshalb die Blendenreflexe). Mit Samyang 14mm und F2,8 aufgenommen. Farben der Nordlichter: Rot entsteht in ca. 200km Höhe durch Sauerstoffatome und ist nur bei hoher Sonnenaktivität sichtbar Grün entsteht in ca.10km Höhe durch mit anderen Teilchen kollodierte Sauerstoffatome und kommt am häufigsten vor Blau/ lila entsteht durch angeregte Stickstoffatome, dafür sind jedoch extrem starke magnetosphärische Störungen erforderlich. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarlicht

10.59 p.m. - first tentative aurora to the east. The lights of Tromsø illuminate the sky on the left, the birches cast shadows in the moonlight.

11.52 p.m. - violet and green curtains in the north over Ersfjordbotn

11.54 p.m. - looking west along Kattfjorddalen

11.28 p.m. - Aurora forecast was for 5 on the Kp-Index (solar storm). After a slow start the displays started getting better and better. View on black!

Fast moving northern lights at a quarter to midnight

11.37 p.m. - just minutes after the first Corona things were really picking up. 11mm (on crop) is not nearly wide enough! Best viewed on black

Season's greetings to all friends and visitors! Photo taken 1.12 a.m.on Kvaløya

1.19 a.m. - Aurora over Kvaløya, Troms

One from the archives, shot with Samyang 14mm/ F2,8 at Hamn i Senja HFF folks, have a good weekend! I'll be offline rather often in the coming days/ weeks but will be back and catch up eventually.

Auroras over Bergsfjord and a fishing boat returning into harbour