Image Aurora Glen Dye au61041jhp by Jim Henderson

 
Aurora over Scotland > Aurora Glen Dye au61041jhp
Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights displays photographed taken over Aberdeeshire in Scotland since 1989 covering some 350 events with arc, rays, coronas with a wide rnage of shapes and colours
Aurora Glen Dye au61041jhp Scotland Aurora Borealis underexposed grainy rays red 645 medium format autumn 27th September 1989 taken from Heatheryhaugh just above steep climb out of Glen Dye on the road to the Cairn O’Mount and which looks across to Clachnaben, the notable hill with a tor rocky outcrop which makes it visible from much of Deeside when looking south. This photo is one of the first I took of an Aurora display using the Fuji RHP 400asa 6.4.5cm format film and it became visible just after midnight when clouds cleared and made the stars and night sky visible although the large brown patches are moving cloud. The project to photograph an Aurora came after a missed opportunity earlier in the year in March with what became known as the Big Aurora, a full Corona over Deeside. I had got the idea of trying to photograph a display following on from my success in 1986 of capturing Halley’s Comet thanks to the support of the Astronomy Ian Shepherd at the Edinburgh Observatory. I had heard about the Big Aurora but had missed the display buried away in my darkroom processing B&W photos for the local newspaper. Ian suggested I contact John MacNicol, President of the Aberdeen Astronomy Society and he eventually tipped me off about the display captured here. I photographed using Fuji RHP 400asa medium format transparency film of which this photo is an underexposed example while bracketing exposures near the 20 second mark based on my experiences with photographing the Comet and aware that exposures much longer than 20 seconds incurred the affect of star trail so instead of sharp dots for stars they became lines. In this case I used the 40mm f4 Zenzanon on my Bronica ETRS. Push processing the 400asa slide film at the lab by two stops to the equivalent of 1600asa I found that an exposure around 20 second eventually gave the best results for best colour saturation and exposure and giving the maximum control of grain without it appearing washed out from underexposure as in this case. As I shot my general landscape work using Fuji film, usually Velvia or RAP, I stayed with it for the Aurora although Kodak film was acceptable in quality and results. I felt that the Fuji film handled the reds and greens better anyway and these are in practice the primary colours of Aurora displays when oxygen is excited by the incoming electrons. Keywords: Scotland, Scottish, British, North, Northern, East, Aberdeenshire, Royal, Deeside, Glen, Dye, Cairn, O’Mount, road, Heatheryhaugh, Clachnaben, Aurora, Borealis, Arc, Rays, Northern, Lights, Merry Dancers, landscape, photos, photographs, sunspots, solar, flares, CME, electrons, photons, storms, energy, sun, stars, oxygen, gas, Van, Allen, belt, ionosphere, flares, space, molecules, magnetic, disturbance, magnetometers, belts, radiation, purple, red, green, yellow, pink, colourful, colorful, coloured, colored, colours, colors, moon, whirls, celestial, clouds, nature, dark, nights, night-time, forest, 1989, September, slide, transparency, film, Fuji, RHP, 400asa, pushed, development, 1600asa, 645mm, time, exposure, Bronica, ETRS, wide, angle, lens, Zenzanon, 40mm, f4, scanned, scan, earliest, first, captured
© Jim Henderson
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Photographer: Jim Henderson
Collection: Aurora over Scotland
Filename:
Aurora Glen Dye au61041jhp
Upload Date: 2016-03-23 22:22:09
Photo Size: 27mb 5095x3709 pixels
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Caption:

Scotland Aurora Borealis underexposed grainy rays red 645 medium format

autumn 27th September 1989 taken from Heatheryhaugh just above steep climb out of Glen Dye on the road to the Cairn O’Mount and which looks across to Clachnaben, the notable hill with a tor rocky outcrop which makes it visible from much of Deeside when looking south. This photo is one of the first I took of an Aurora display using the Fuji RHP 400asa 6.4.5cm format film and it became visible just after midnight when clouds cleared and made the stars and night sky visible although the large brown patches are moving cloud. The project to photograph an Aurora came after a missed opportunity earlier in the year in March with what became known as the Big Aurora, a full Corona over Deeside. I had got the idea of trying to photograph a display following on from my success in 1986 of capturing Halley’s Comet thanks to the support of the Astronomy Ian Shepherd at the Edinburgh Observatory. I had heard about the Big Aurora but had missed the display buried away in my darkroom processing B&W photos for the local newspaper. Ian suggested I contact John MacNicol, President of the Aberdeen Astronomy Society and he eventually tipped me off about the display captured here.

I photographed using Fuji RHP 400asa medium format transparency film of which this photo is an underexposed example while bracketing exposures near the 20 second mark based on my experiences with photographing the Comet and aware that exposures much longer than 20 seconds incurred the affect of star trail so instead of sharp dots for stars they became lines. In this case I used the 40mm f4 Zenzanon on my Bronica ETRS. Push processing the 400asa slide film at the lab by two stops to the equivalent of 1600asa I found that an exposure around 20 second eventually gave the best results for best colour saturation and exposure and giving the maximum control of grain without it appearing washed out from underexposure as in this case. As I shot my general landscape work using Fuji film, usually Velvia or RAP, I stayed with it for the Aurora although Kodak film was acceptable in quality and results. I felt that the Fuji film handled the reds and greens better anyway and these are in practice the primary colours of Aurora displays when oxygen is excited by the incoming electrons.
Keywords: Scotland, Scottish, British, North, Northern, East, Aberdeenshire, Royal, Deeside, Glen, Dye, Cairn, O’Mount, road, Heatheryhaugh, Clachnaben, Aurora, Borealis, Arc, Rays, Northern, Lights, Merry Dancers, landscape, photos, photographs, sunspots, solar, flares, CME, electrons, photons, storms, energy, sun, stars, oxygen, gas, Van, Allen, belt, ionosphere, flares, space, molecules, magnetic, disturbance, magnetometers, belts, radiation, purple, red, green, yellow, pink, colourful, colorful, coloured, colored, colours, colors, moon, whirls, celestial, clouds, nature, dark, nights, night-time, forest, 1989, September, slide, transparency, film, Fuji, RHP, 400asa, pushed, development, 1600asa, 645mm, time, exposure, Bronica, ETRS, wide, angle, lens, Zenzanon, 40mm, f4, scanned, scan, earliest, first, captured