Dec 15
Northern lights
The light display wasn’t quite as good as it was last night. As I was looking at the faint glow in the north, I realised that yesterday was actually not the first time I’ve ever seen the aurora - I’ve seen this same kind of glow before, but I’ve always just assumed that it’s light reflected on clouds. I guess my expectations have been too high, I’ve always just expected to see the glorious shifting of lights and when that doesn’t happen, I haven’t made the connection between the steady glow and aurora. But having said that, nothing takes away the feeling I had last night. In my mind, I will always remember that moment!
Anyways, this time I had the camera with me. I’m on a steep learning curve… I’ve never done night sky photography before. To start with, how do you compose in the dark?! I could hardly see where the viewfinder was, let alone seeing anything through it… I ended up using my flashlight on the FG tree, aimed the camera at it, and hoped that the Big Dipper would fit in the frame. Lucky me, it did! My mission for tonight - weather permitting - is to expose correctly, as well…
I also tried to shoot the aurora, but got mainly experience. First thing is to buy a remote switch for my D200. -Luckily there’s a third-party solution available. Second thing is the correct lens for this type of shooting. If I remember it right, Martti Rikkonen mainly used 24/1,4 with his film slr. To get an equivalent for dslr means…18/1,4 and as far as I know, we are a bit short of them now *grin* What lens are you using? I do have a desent 50/1,8, but it is quite long lens for this purpose. Perhaps 20/2,8 would do, dunno :/
Yes I think I read somewhere that a wideangle lens wide-open is the right tool for night sky photography. I used my 24-105mm f4 so it’s not really a wideangle on the 20D, but just enough for this… I might one day get the Sigma 15mm f2.8 fisheye, but it’s hard to justify the cost when I hardly ever need a wideangle lens!