Aurora Borealis 10 05 24 (1 Viewer)

wllmspd said:

Finally a decent view from the UK… having missed the one 20yrs ago… hopefully less time till the next good one.

Peter

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Prestdj said:

great photos brian she danced for us in the sky in mytholmroyd from the garden what a weekend friday osprey over the garden then the display of the lights and saturday goshawk can send send more details in a message if you want

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Binastro said:

A beautiful coronal display.

Regards,
B.

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Binastro said:

Thanks Bri,

I saw a similar long lasting display from southern England in the 1980s.
There was a large arc in the south probably over or to the south of Paris.

As well as maybe a hundred displays from Finland and a few lesser ones from England.

However, the best was an all sky halo display in Finland with numerous rare arcs,
It covered the whole sky and there were two suns with the third probably behind a building.

Regards,
B.

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BriLee said:

Having missed the Strong Solar Storm around 20 Years ago,things looked more promising this time,though there were clouds on the Northern horizon,AuroraWatch UK showed red alert for a good few hours before dark, and nothing happened until slight green colours started to appear,then it just went Absolutely Crazy, with Pink green reds seemingly all above and around,Incredible I thought I was illucinating !!.the climax was sort of a Light Explosion right above, Absolutely Fantastic, I never expected seeing a Spectacle like this on my doorstep !! Regards Bri 😊 View attachment 1579240

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Binastro said:

What was the exposure and ISO?

I usually used 4 seconds at f/1.2 at 200ASA or 400ASA but sometimes 1 second was enough.
Often minus 20C to minus 30C or colder.

Noctilucent cloud, end May till beginning August, 1 second at f/1.4 400ASA or 400 ISO.

Nowadays video is so sensitive that videos are easy of noctilucent cloud.

Regards,
B.

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BriLee said:

3.2 seconds at 400 iso,it dosent give exif details as its a manual lens , I find f2 kelvin 5300 is a good compromise white balance with the light pollution regards Bri

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BriLee said:

3.2 seconds at 400 iso,it dosent give exif details as its a manual lens , I find f2 kelvin 5300 is a good compromise white balance with the light pollution regards Bri

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Binastro said:

At very low temperatures it is dry cold and there is no moisture on the lens.

At minus 34C the Kodak film broke hopelessly. I repeatedly cut new leaders but this didn't help as the film just broke into pieces.

Luckily I had some Konica negative film that was fine.

The camera case and strap were brittle and would just have broken up, so I left them in the bus station.
The Minolta SRT 303B and lenses were fine.
My friends' Minolta SR1, Canon FTB and Nikon camera and lenses were fine at minus 37C all night.
The users wore six layers of clothes.

However, at the eyepiece in the observatory at minus 20C to minus 25C my eye froze to the eyepiece.
Luckily it wasn't RAS screw thread and I just removed the eyepiece and went to the warm room under the stairs until it warmed up.

I did however, get my foot stuck in a gap under the snow when viewing comet Halley after walking perhaps 500 yards over the sea to a darker island. It was minus 20C.
I didn't panic and unzipped my boot, pulled my foot out of the boot and then prised the boot out of the hole. Luckily I didn't break my ankle or have a serious injury.
I would not have lasted the night stuck there.
On reflection, I was pretty stupid to do these things alone.
On one night I forgot to close the stair hatch in the observatory, but managed to grab the dome rail as I fell and pull myself back.

There was a gorgeous white large hare when I left the observatory one night. It was whiter than the snow and magnificent.
It stayed still for a while then left. About five feet from me.

I slipped on ice on granite and dropped the Ross 10x70 monocular and the prism was partly smashed. One third of the view was missing but I continued using it regularly.
Arthur Frank let me have it from his collection in Glasgow.
In 1970 such things were not being made new.

All in all it's amazing I have reached old age. I have done many stupid things.

Regards,
B.

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Binastro said:

Nothing to do with astronomy, although my friend had a Criterion 8 inch SCT for viewing islands 1.5 miles away in the daytime.

He saw a group of people next to a half frozen river.

A German Shepherd dog had somehow got in the river and the back half of the dog was frozen solid in the ice.

Nobody did anything.

My friend, 6ft 4 and an ex US Navy diver stripped to his underwear.
He was incredibly strong and had a sea going kayak.

He went into the icy river, smashed the ice with his fists and somehow got the dog out of the river.
He carried the dog out and other people took the dog, which eventually fully recovered.

My friend was a regular ice swimmer and in summer went diving with a large knife attached to his leg to cut any discarded fishing nets that littered the sea floor. He had enormous flippers and spent maybe an hour diving free.

Unfortunately he died more than twenty years ago.

Many of my friends are now gone.
One from Covid in March 2020.

Regards,
B.

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