Tuesday 23 August 2016

Iceland Aurora - 23rd August

I was really surprised to see an auroral display on the morning of 23rd august; all the data said there shouldn't be one - Kp1, northerly Bz and a slow solar wind.  Never the less aurora covered atleast half the sky, and despite using the 10mm f4 lens on the canon 350D (iso800 20s exp) I just couldn't get all the sky I wanted in the frame.  It was a really dynamic display changing very quickly, and very bright displaying colours easily to the naked eye despite the waning gibbous moon high in the southerly sky.  The eternal twilight of the late summer in these high latitudes gave the sky background a blue colour, and mist danced on the mountains.  The best aurora i've seen in Iceland since february 2014.  Should have some more pictures to make an animation from, fingers crossed!  This animation is 27 frames and covers about 18 minutes real time.  Here's 2 more from different aspects at different times, all spanning the same sort of time 'real time'.