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Archive 2013 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

astro-ep
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Really interesting shot, Jim.

Thanks for sharing,

Eric

Jul 18, 2013 at 05:55 PM

aFeinberg
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Sick work. And I've had green in my sky down here in Hawaii lately. Couldnt believe the camera was picking that up!

aF

Jul 18, 2013 at 06:40 PM

JimFox
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Derek Weston wrote:
The (majority at least of the) color you're seeing is quite likely airglow:

Image examples:
https://www.google.com/search?q=airglow+night+sky&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mmrnUcWDK-WyyAGNy4GIAw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1745&bih=868

Example of airglow to the right, aurora to the left:
www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2013/2013_06_28pano4.jpg

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow

I've seen this quite a bit, as well as the aurora borealis. You'll usually have curtains and or movement with the aurora. To me aurora has a rather distinct look and is more visible naked eye than airglow.

That said, perhaps a bit of of aurora mixed in -- it looks like you've got the sagittarius arm of the milky way to the right side of your photo, meaning it'd be the opposite of that (left) to...Show more →

Hey Derek,

Thanks for all of that information, what an interesting phenomenom... I think I have seen it in the past but never to this degree.

Yeah, there can be lot's of noises out there while shooting, especially in an area where there are geysers going off at all sort of random times. It's actually kind of fun just being out there... And I am glad you liked the shot.

Jim

Jul 20, 2013 at 04:59 PM

JimFox
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

AndrewThomas wrote:
Hi Jim, there are elements of this I like, the geyser and the milky way are awesome. However, I find the boardwalk and the right hand lower part of the image quite distracting. Like you said you didn't want to go off into the thermal fields in the dark, though I think if you had you may have come back with something extra special. Did you have an opportunity after taking these, and realising just how special these images are, to return the next night when you may have had a chance to survey the surrounds a bit more during...Show more →

Hey Andrew,

Thanks so much. Normally when shooting the geysers in Yellowstone I avoid the boardwalks in the photos like a plague. I always try to avoid them. But in this case I had to make a compromise. I knew the boardwalk would be in the shot, but I was hoping it would blend in, first with it being night and being darker, and second because in a way, it is a part of the scene. Next time I am there, I think I will try to do as you suggest, I do think it would be really cool with the Milky Way bridging over Great Fountain.

Jim

Jul 20, 2013 at 05:04 PM

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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

The reflections in the thermal pool make the shot for me, very cool. Simply amazing what cameras and photographers are capable of today. Great shot, I agree with the earlier post and would love to see this big! Just thinking out loud, I wonder if the gases from the geysers settling in the basin as the night cools would have any effect on the light your camera sensor records? The purple seems concentrated low and in the basin. I like the airglow link above, interesting all around.

BW

Edited on Jul 20, 2013 at 07:03 PM · View previous versions

Jul 20, 2013 at 05:52 PM

PeakPhoto
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Wonderful shot Jim!

Would you mind sharing your process on how to capture a panoramic of the stars? Especially one with 10 shots!

Keep up the phenomenal work!

Andy

Jul 20, 2013 at 06:49 PM

Steve Perry
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p.2 #7 · p.2 #7 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Hey Jim -

Great shot if you ask me.

Also, not sure you figured out the file save issue, but I think I know what's going on. I run into that Photoshop error from time to time, especially since getting the D800 - you need to save as a PSB file instead of a PSD, easy as that. It's the PS large Document format, just a giant PSD file as far as I can tell, works the same.

Jul 20, 2013 at 07:20 PM

alatoo60
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Jim,
that's an amazing pano! Love the Milky Way-bow and the reflections in the pools.
As about green and purple coloration, my camera does it all the time when shooting at night, and I always thought that's just imperfection of the sensor. Does not look like Aurora to me, but you can always check as I am pretty sure this sort of solar activity is monitored somewhere on NASA site.

Sasha.

Jul 20, 2013 at 07:49 PM

Rick Schump
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p.2 #9 · p.2 #9 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Jim, cudos on the shot and the determination to stay out and shoot past bedtime. The shot is very sweet, you have a lot of them, but I hope you find someplace for a print of this. Rick

Jul 20, 2013 at 08:35 PM

morris
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p.2 #10 · p.2 #10 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

It shore is pretty whatever is going on Jim. CS 5 throws random errors at me and there usually not reproducible though they usually happen when I begin to stich. A close and reload always fixes it.

Morris

Jul 20, 2013 at 09:11 PM

r_raman
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p.2 #11 · p.2 #11 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Beautiful capture Jim! I like how you composed it.

Jul 20, 2013 at 10:05 PM

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p.2 #12 · p.2 #12 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Amazing image.

Jul 20, 2013 at 10:14 PM

ckcarr
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p.2 #13 · p.2 #13 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Sorry I hadn't commented on this before. What a stunning shot Jim!

In addition to the great panorama, I can feel your isolation out there after the people had left. Kind of like Goblin Valley, where you have a place to yourself.

I love the mirror like reflection on the geyser travertine top.

Jul 20, 2013 at 11:24 PM

JimFox
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p.2 #14 · p.2 #14 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

morris wrote:
It shore is pretty whatever is going on Jim. CS 5 throws random errors at me and there usually not reproducible though they usually happen when I begin to stich. A close and reload always fixes it.

Morris

Hey Morris,

Thanks so much, I am glad you liked it.

But this is nothing from CS5 or CS6 which I use. It was captured by the camera, I saw it on the LCD while I was out shooting in the middle of the night. If you read a couple of the links you will see it's natural.

If you are getting random errors with CS5, you really ought to delete it off your computer and reload it, as CS5 was stable when I used to use it.

Thanks again,

Jim

Jul 21, 2013 at 04:04 AM

JimFox
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p.2 #15 · p.2 #15 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

ckcarr wrote:
Sorry I hadn't commented on this before. What a stunning shot Jim!

In addition to the great panorama, I can feel your isolation out there after the people had left. Kind of like Goblin Valley, where you have a place to yourself.

I love the mirror like reflection on the geyser travertine top.

Thanks so much Craig. I am glad you liked it. Great Fountain is my favorite geyser in Yellowstone. I staked it out one year to get as many erruptions as I could, I even shot it errupting at night that year. So I have spent many nighttime hours at this one shooting it. Having those beautiful pools to reflect sunrise, sunset or the stars just makes this the sweetest location. And the fact that no one else is out there at night is a double bonus. I know some people don't like being out alone at night, but for me, it's a very enjoyable time.

Whether it's there, Death Valley, Valley of Fire, you name it... there is just something very enjoyable and awe inspiring to be alone out there, and to be able to enjoy the beauty of the creation all around you. Or world/universe is still in the creation process, yet during the day, and the busyness of it, we seem to hardly take notice.

But there is something about being out at night, and the magnitude of the stars, and punyness of ourselves that really allows us to see and feel that there is something bigger going on out there besides ourselves. We sometimes can get big heads with our ego's puffed up about how great we are, and yet in the grand scheme of things, we are the tiniest of specs on the tiniest of specs of a world... Okay... off the soap box... That's what I get for commenting at 2am...

Jim

Jul 21, 2013 at 04:12 AM

JimFox
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p.2 #16 · p.2 #16 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Steve Perry wrote:
Hey Jim -

Great shot if you ask me.

Also, not sure you figured out the file save issue, but I think I know what's going on. I run into that Photoshop error from time to time, especially since getting the D800 - you need to save as a PSB file instead of a PSD, easy as that. It's the PS large Document format, just a giant PSD file as far as I can tell, works the same.

Hey Steve,

Thanks so much for that tip! I figured there had to be a way around it. For me, this file was so big anyway, much larger than I would ever need to print, so downsizing it by 25% was an easy solution at the time. But yeah, what you are saying makes sense. I will test it out later.

Oh, and I am glad you liked the shot!

Jim

Jul 21, 2013 at 04:14 AM

JimFox
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p.2 #17 · p.2 #17 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Rick Schump wrote:
Jim, cudos on the shot and the determination to stay out and shoot past bedtime. The shot is very sweet, you have a lot of them, but I hope you find someplace for a print of this. Rick

Thanks Rick, I am glad you liked the shot.

Yeah, I love shooting the stars, it's very peaceful with all the hub bub of others have left. My problem is once I start, it's easy for me to stay in a place shooting until 1 or 2 am, and then that makes the 4:00am wakeup a bit tougher...

In this case, it was actually the moon that ran me out. It was a pretty full moon, and once it broke the horizon on the east it was like a spot light... it lit up the foreground too much and washed out the stars too much. I was doing some star trails when it came over and then it cast shadows on the foreground. I am still not sure if I like those shots because of the shadows... And yeah... got a find a place to hang this print...

Jim

Jul 21, 2013 at 04:19 AM

JimFox
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p.2 #18 · p.2 #18 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

alatoo60 wrote:
Jim,
that's an amazing pano! Love the Milky Way-bow and the reflections in the pools.
As about green and purple coloration, my camera does it all the time when shooting at night, and I always thought that's just imperfection of the sensor. Does not look like Aurora to me, but you can always check as I am pretty sure this sort of solar activity is monitored somewhere on NASA site.

Sasha.

Thanks so much Sasha, I am glad you like it.

As for the coloring, read the links that Derek posted, that makes most sense to me, especially as the color at that time was very defined and duplicated exactly even with different compositions I did. Like you, I have seen similar in the past, no way to this degree, but in the past I kind of just attributed it to camera messing up. But it can't be, as I took this same basic shot in some horizontal comps from a couple different postions, and the angle of the color and shape of it was exactly the same and in the same location on the horizon. Very weird, but something I will pay more attention to in the future.

Jim

Jul 21, 2013 at 04:24 AM

JimFox
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p.2 #19 · p.2 #19 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

B.Williams wrote:
The reflections in the thermal pool make the shot for me, very cool. Simply amazing what cameras and photographers are capable of today. Great shot, I agree with the earlier post and would love to see this big! Just thinking out loud, I wonder if the gases from the geysers settling in the basin as the night cools would have any effect on the light your camera sensor records? The purple seems concentrated low and in the basin. I like the airglow link above, interesting all around.

BW

Hey Brad,

Glad you liked the shot. Yeah... you might have hit on something for the purple... that could be a result than of maybe heat from the basin being trapped? Something to think about.

Jim

Jul 21, 2013 at 04:25 AM

RKnecht
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p.2 #20 · p.2 #20 · To Aurora or Not to Aurora

Wow, this is awesome Jim. I understand the comments about the boardwalk, but I don't think I would have cropped it any differently. Do you use a tracking device to avoid star trails? I have been playing around with night shots and can't seem to find the sweet spot to get sharp stars without trails. Anyhow, like someone else mentioned, you need to find an empty space on a wall and hang this one.

Jul 21, 2013 at 05:16 AM

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