Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

November 19, 2015

Night Sky Shots

There was a fairly large solar storm a couple of weeks ago which meant the Northern Lights were going to be very active and allegedly visible down here.  I have street lights across from me, and they are on the north side of the street, so it's really hard to see the stars from the front yard.  In the back yard, the north sky is obstructed by trees.  I am pleased with this photo, as it shows the trees and stars very well.  

I was following the Aurora Alerts site, HERE, and saw that it was going to be very active around 6:30 pm and reaching almost all the way down here.  So I went down to the beach, pointed the camera north and started shooting, leaving the aperture open for 30-90 seconds.  

It's funny but standing there on the beach it was so dark I had to use a flashlight, but the light pollution you couldn't see with the naked eye lit up the sky anyway.

I didn't see a thing.  When I got back and downloaded this, I noticed the green tint to the sky.  The jury is still out whether or not that's the aurora or light pollution.

Not sure why the boathouse is lit up electric green, or the trim on the house.


Then one early morning...like WAY early morning (for me)...I took the dogs out and couldn't believe the tiny sliver of moon that was showing.  It was about 5:30 and the sky was actually a really pretty shade of blue because the sky was getting light.  But I didn't feel like dragging the tripod outside when I was still half asleep so I had to free hand it.  It's a bit blurry but hey, no glasses, no coffee and sleepy.

8 comments:

  1. Nice photos JoJo!!! I love that iridescent green!!! It adds a touch of interest. It must be like eyes turning red. the lites across the bay are also showing green. The early bird gets the worm lol...

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    1. Thank you so much! Now it's getting so cold out at night that I don't know how much shooting I'll be doing. Maybe if there's no wind.

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  2. 5:30 a.m. what on earth were you doing walking the dogs at that time of the day? Like the shots you got. Saw the aurora borealis once when we were up in Northern Canada. Not a very exciting display like the pictures one sees on TV or something.

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    1. Thank you Jo! Pepper's getting so old she's having a lot of accidents. If I wake up and I hear her stirring, I leap out of bed to get her outside before I end up cleaning up poop in my bedroom. I think this was the morning I went back to bed and woke up close to 8.

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  3. I saw a sliver of moon too, the other night. At least you took a photo of it! I would love to see the Northern Lights, but haven't so far. One day . . .

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    1. It's getting to the point where I'm seriously considering traveling to northern Alaska in the winter. I want to see the aurora so bad.

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  4. Oh, I wish I could see the stars. London has so much ambient light I can barely tell the difference between the new street lights and the moon.

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    1. We have a lot of light pollution too, unfortunately.

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