Saturday, October 12, 2024

The Aurora Borealis comes to Colorado

Thursday October 10th 

It turned out to be a very propitious displacement on my part to be here by Thursday. Martha, my loving life, alerted me to the fact they were expecting the Aurora Borealis to be visible as far south as Colorado that night!

It must have been a heck of a Coronal Mass Ejection event to enable the sight of the Aurora Borealis this far south!

Close to 8 pm, I thought I saw a brightness in the skies that was unusual. So I set up the camera using the instructions googled for me by Martha. It took a while to figure out focus, framing and exposure settings but eventually:








The above pictures were taken over the course of about an hour and 15 minutes. Then the light display from the Aurora Borealis became to dim.

Notes:

Use ISO 3200, F3.5, aperture priority mode, manual focus (watch for Infinity symbol), and step down the exposure to perhaps minus 2.0.  Tripod of course!  Keep exposure in time under 8 seconds if possible otherwise you get star trails.


8 comments:

Andy & Laura said...

Breathtaking!

redlegsrides said...

Indeed, thanks for the comment

Oz said...

Awesome! We were actually able to see the Northern Lights here in Tennessee! Second time this year, although not as varied or bright as you saw. Still an amazing display.

redlegsrides said...

Yep, thanks, though it would have been nice out to see it with the naked eye about one has to go north, way north for that!

CCjon said...

Lucky man, and a great job on capturing the auroa colors.

redlegsrides said...

Mostly luck, CCjon....thanks

SonjaM said...

Oh wow, Dom. What a great outcome. Too much light pollution in our area, alas nothing to see. Cheers, SonjaM

redlegsrides said...

Thanks SonjaM, quite the light show for my camera....wasn't much in evidence to my eyes.