All-sky aurora - 17.3.2015 at 20.10 Lahti Observation number 35281

Copyright © 2015 Samuli Ikäheimo. All rights reserved.

Visibility V / V

Samuli Ikäheimo, Lahden Ursa

During the day, news coverage and metrics came closely, but terribly there was no belief in the continuation of the geomagnetic storm until the evening.

However, as the evening darkened, some subtle shades of zenith began to appear in the celestial cameras, briskly before darkness arrived. A glance from the window to the south set the adrenaline moving; crown bangs. Didn’t help but in a hurry to put the rigs in a pile and head out.

Lamping up for the car was originally awkward as the gaze kept getting up. As there were no guarantees about the duration of the storm, I headed to the nearest place with a wider view at the foot of the Mustakallionmäki water tower.

The performance above was great.

I quickly took a few hand shots before tuning the tripod. Then add slightly more detailed images with the tripod. Video. Spherical panorama. Everything had to be tried while there was still enough movement.

I arrived at eight countries and less than an hour later the situation was already slowing down. A quick call to my own provincial newspaper revealed the need for images in the delivery, which was followed by a quick move home to the machine and a fierce selection and processing of images for just over an hour. The groove was worthwhile and the picture of the evening's northern lights ended up in the next day's magazine.

So this observation report is only in the early evening. Another report of the night’s events is likely to be slammed during Thursday as long as the rest of the pictures have been gone through.

This description has been automatically translated from Finnish. Click here to see the original text.

12 8

Additional information

Aurora brightness
- Bright auroras
Colors with unaided eye and other features
- Streaming auroras
  
  Streaming. In streaming aurora fast irregular variations in brightness occur along the horizontal dimension of homogeneous shapes.
- Flickering auroras
  
  Flickering. This rare subclass refers to a situation where irregular variations in brightness occur in aurora, such as in fluttering flames.
- Flaming auroras
  
  Flaming. This rare subclass of aurora does not mean so much a single shape, but a large area in the sky. In the flaming aurora, bright waves that are sweeping upward towards the magnetic zenith emerge in the sky. Very rarely waves can wipe downwards. Bands are usually reported during flaming, less often spots.
- Pulsating auroras
  
  Pulsating aurora. The brightness of the pulsating aurora usually varies rhythmically over a period that can be only a fraction of a second at its fastest, but can also be several minutes. Pulsing usually only occurs in(strong auroral conditions) higher quality shows , especially towards the end of them. However, the pulsation may be followed by yet another eruption. Sometimes the variation in brightness is at the same stage in the whole form, whereby the whole form "turns on and off" at the same time. Pulsation is also found in arches and bands, but above all in spots..
- Blue auroras
  
  Clearly blue auroras can be seen only during the best aurora displays close to the maximum phase or soon after it. Sometimes blue auroras can be seen shortly after the sunset at the top part of the auroral shapes, specially rays. It is created by the mission of the ionized nitrogen molecules created by the suns radiation.
  
  Strongly colored blue auroras. Photo by Jorma Mäntylä.
  
  Blue top parts of the aurora. Image by Tom Eklund.
  
  Blue top parts of the aurora. Image by Jaakko Hatanpää.
  
  Partly blue corona. Photo by Tapio Koski.
  
  Faintly blue top parts of an aurora veil. Photo by Jaakko Hatanpää.
- Red coloration of the shapes top
  
  Auroras which have red top part that can be seen with naked eye are most often observed in the bands and long rays. In this case the lower parts are usually green. If the upper parts are in sunlight, red may be stronger than green. This shade of red is due to the discharge of the excitation state of the atomic oxygen.
  
  Aurora that shift to reddish towards the top. Photo by Karri Pasanen.
  
  Red top in a aurora band. Photo by Simo Aikioniemi.
  
  Red at the top of the aurora. Picture of Tom Eklund.
- Red coloration of the shapes lower edge
  
  Red lower edge visible with the naked eye. The bands which are starting to level up their activity and are green colored have quite often a narrow red lower edge. This is the most common form of red color which is derived from molecular nitrogen.
  
  Aurora band with purple lower edge. Photo by Ilmo Kemppainen.
  
  The low hanging brightest aurora band is colored red at the lower edge. Photo by Tero Ohranen.
  
  Narrow purple reddish tones at the lower part of this aurora band. Photo by Merja Ruotsalainen.
  
  Purple band at the bottom. Photo by Panu Lahtinen.
- Green auroras
  
  Green, seen with the naked eye, is one the most common colors of the aurora. The green color is derived from atomic oxygen.
  
  Green auroras. Lea Rahtu-Korpela.
  
  Green auroras. Photo by Juha Ojanperä.

Observed aurora forms
- ;Veil;Rays;Band;Corona;Arc

Technical information

Sony a7S, Canon 6D, 15 / 2.8, 24 / 1.4.

Send a comment

Comments are checked and moderated before publication If you want to contact the observer directly about possibilities to use these images, use the Media -form.

Desktop version of the site Show the mobile version
Site development by the Skywarden team and E. Bruus.
© 2011- 2023 Ursa Astronomical Association. All rights reserved.
Privacy policy