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Archive 2021 · Aurora in Fairbanks

kezeka
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Aurora in Fairbanks

I had initially planned this trip to alaska last year but then with the pandemic just starting it just didn't happen. So happy to have been able to escape for a few days to fairbanks to capture the aurora last week. Despite having spent plenty of time reading about capturing the aurora, I was still blown away by how quickly the light moves! Very very awesome opportunity and so happy to have braved the frozen north to finally see it.

A year ago, I picked up a sigma 14/1.8 for this specific purpose which has happily been repurposed shooting the milky way in SoCal for practice for the last year. It worked fantastically well for the aurora. It has quickly become one of my favorite lenses for astro photography. Additionally, I picked up a 28-70/2 as a multipurpose lens but was anticipating needing it just in case the aurora was distance. Fortunately, as we were just starting to lose sensation in our toes and fingers, the aurora stretched its lights overhead making the 14 perfect for the job, as I was not looking forward to changing lenses in those temperatures!

Also notable was how admirably the R5 did out in the 0*F weather. I shot around 200 photos in the 2 hours (using only the back screen) and still had 4 of 4 bars on the in camera battery at the end of it. I had prepared by bringing another in camera battery as well as a USB PD battery pack just in case i needed some extra power but happily needed neither.

I would have liked to find a better foreground but I was also with several other folks in the car and had less control over our locations when everyone was pretty cranky about being sleep deprived and hunting around for decent spots in the frigid cold.

https://photos.smugmug.com/TheRest-2/2021/Alaska/i-9ZJXpNV/0/cbc443b2/XL/Fairbanks%20A-99-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/TheRest-2/2021/Alaska/i-sqP2rsf/0/01f77aac/XL/Fairbanks%20A-477-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/TheRest-2/2021/Alaska/i-RJwfFL7/0/7d0eb79c/XL/Fairbanks%20A-326-XL.jpg

Edited on Mar 27, 2021 at 02:08 PM · View previous versions

Mar 27, 2021 at 01:33 PM

macentropist
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Fantastic images!

Mar 27, 2021 at 02:04 PM

junglialoh
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Beautiful Aurora.

Mar 27, 2021 at 02:15 PM

rmhh
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Stunning pictures! And I like the foregrounds...

Mar 27, 2021 at 02:38 PM

CW100
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Aurora in Fairbanks

nice !

Mar 27, 2021 at 05:15 PM

kezeka
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Aurora in Fairbanks

rmhh wrote:
Stunning pictures! And I like the foregrounds...

I really appreciate you saying that! I probably spent too much time digging through the internet finding photos of better ones before my journey out there.

Mar 27, 2021 at 05:17 PM

batterypark
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Aurora in Fairbanks

thank you for the beautiful photos - did you have to do any research before going? i’d love to try to get a shot of an aurora one day!

Mar 28, 2021 at 10:26 AM

kezeka
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Aurora in Fairbanks

batterypark wrote:
thank you for the beautiful photos - did you have to do any research before going? i’d love to try to get a shot of an aurora one day!

I did quite a bit before leaving. The hardest part of it is trying to align a day with high Kp (a measure of geomagnetic activity), with a relatively new moon, and a cloudless night. To some extent you just have to get lucky having those three things align while you are visiting. Beyond even those three factors, there doesn't seem to be a great way to predict at which time the aurora is really going to become active in the sky. The first night we were there, the Kp was high and we could only see a faint band and we were exhausted from having spent 15 hours traveling and landing at 1am so we went to bed around 3 after giving up. At 4:30 am it became very active while we were asleep! We resolved to just stay awake the second night until we could really appreciate it and got lucky with it becoming active between 11p and 1a. The rest of the trip was cloudy so nice dice for further photos.

As far as location scouting, my buddy lives in Fairbanks and gave us tips, which was helpful because online people recommend driving all the way to chena hotsprings (1hr away, in the dark, and iced over roads with a large population of moose). Fortunately he recommended a local mountain with a slightly better road that was mostly cleared.

As far as research taking the shot itself, you need a wide aperture lens (f/2.8 or better) because you really don't want to be extending exposures past 5-10 seconds. The aurora moves fairly briskly for an astronomical event and to get the stacks of light instead of a blur you need a shorter exposure time. I had initially started capturing 20s exposures and quickly lowered these to 10s. It is pretty darn bright so you'll have more light than you would expect. I honestly thought it was going to be fairly dim like the milky way where your eyes have to adjust but the aurora is as bright as a dim flashlight when its active!

Its awesome and worth the effort to see such an incredible natural phenomenon!

Mar 28, 2021 at 11:24 AM

Jeff Nolten
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Lovely shots! We did an aurora trip in 2015 with two nights out in Fairbanks, a parking lot on a nearby hill, and two nights out at Chena. I used a 5D3 with an old 20-35 f2.8 L. My exposure times were about 6 to 8 seconds at ISO 1600, similar to yours. Finally got to use the spikes on my tripod.

Mar 28, 2021 at 12:27 PM

kezeka
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Jeff Nolten wrote:
Lovely shots! We did an aurora trip in 2015 with two nights out in Fairbanks, a parking lot on a nearby hill, and two nights out at Chena. I used a 5D3 with an old 20-35 f2.8 L. My exposure times were about 6 to 8 seconds at ISO 1600, similar to yours. Finally got to use the spikes on my tripod.

Thanks for sharing.

BTW, we're going out to Anza Borrego next weekend. If the weather and moon cooperate I'd like to try some milky way shots with my m6II and Rokinon 12mm f2. Any suggestions for initial...Show more →

I usually shoot from Mt Laguna (mountain overlooking the start of the anza borrego desert) and have been having good luck with 14mm ISO1600 f/1.8 25-30s. I think conventional teaching is that you might start getting star trails at 14mm with that long of an exposure but they were pretty minimal on my 5D3 (haven't had a chance to shoot the annual milky way arch on the higher resolution R5). The 12mm lens on a crop might need a slightly faster shutter speed (essentially 18mm) so I'd probably start at 20s and ISO 3200 see what you can get away with in terms of star trails.

Here is an example of those settings last year while I was up on a mountain shooting the comet:

https://photos.smugmug.com/TheRest-2/2020/Comet-NEOWISE/i-jFL3HK7/0/bb0fe953/XL/Comet%20NEOWISE-41-XL.jpg

Here is a pano of the milky way from lake cuyamaca shooting towards the east (towards anza, the background glow is el centro)

https://photos.smugmug.com/TheRest-2/2019/Lake-Cuyamaca/i-33jq9jn/0/5863e545/XL/Cuyamaca%20Milky%20Way-72-Pano-XL.jpg

Hope all of this helps! I haven't been out in Anza at night time but I have friends who camp out there and have seen the photos of the stars at night - its a perfect spot for astro! Very jealous and I'm sure you'll have an awesome time out there.

Mar 28, 2021 at 01:58 PM

Jeff Nolten
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Thanks Joshua! Especially about the Mt. Laguna info. We live in San Diego so that's in our back yard. I'll see if there is any camping space available up there, doubt it but its now on my list.

The Rokinon is a fairly inexpensive experiment for this. I don't have any fast wides for my 5D4 - even the 20-35 was borrowed. If this doesn't work out I may have to invest in some glass for the FF.

Thanks again for the info, this should give me a starting place. Love the pano!

Mar 28, 2021 at 02:16 PM

kezeka
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Jeff Nolten wrote:
Thanks Joshua! Especially about the Mt. Laguna info. We live in San Diego so that's in our back yard. I'll see if there is any camping space available up there, doubt it but its now on my list.

. I spend most of my free time hiking the various trails of Mt Laguna since the pandemic started since its always empty up there.

It might be worth giving the EF rokinon 14/2.8 that goes for $300 a shot if you have the money to spare. They can be good for astro and are (relatively) inexpensive. I think that pano was shot with one but then I noticed that it was off center so I returned it and picked up a sigma 14/1.8.

Mar 28, 2021 at 02:57 PM

Jeff Nolten
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Ah! I hadn't notice you were also San Diego - somehow I had it that you were LA area. We've probably passed each other up in the mountains as I hike there regularly.

Except for the Alaska trip I haven't done much night photography. I'm working my way into that slowly.

Mar 28, 2021 at 07:19 PM

kezeka
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Jeff Nolten wrote:
Ah! I hadn't notice you were also San Diego - somehow I had it that you were LA area. We've probably passed each other up in the mountains as I hike there regularly.

Except for the Alaska trip I haven't done much night photography. I'm working my way into that slowly.

I bought a NiSi filter for this based on another thread. Any opinions on that? I figure if I ever do another aurora trip I'd get a 16-35 f2.8 III but they're kinda pricy to just get. Thanks again for the advice, I picked the right person to...Show more →

I am sure we have passed each other up there! I love those trails and the fresh air from the evergreens.

I am no pro at astro and just started learning a couple years ago but I'm happy to help! I'd never heard of a NiSi filter until your comment so I have no extra knowledge on those.

Mar 29, 2021 at 01:19 PM

Jeff Nolten
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Aurora in Fairbanks

They are supposed to enhance night skies and cityscapes. Kind of pricey in the larger sizes, B&H link. Here are a few examples and description from a fellow over on DPR using the M system. I purchased a 55mm and some adapters for my M to experiment with.

Sunset trail is my favorite, but I like the Harvey Moore too. I know these are the well known trails but nice views and trees. I've also hiked the Kelly Ditch trail a number of times, it was better before the fire.

Mar 29, 2021 at 02:35 PM

kezeka
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Aurora in Fairbanks

I love the trails off of sunset trailhead! My favorite spot for sunrise and sunset is garnet peak. Gets super windy and cold up there at night but the views are unrivaled. A lot of my milkyway shots are from lake cuyamaca on the dam since you can get some reflections there. There is also a dock by the restaurant on the lake worth stopping at. The best thing about practicing by lake cuyamaca is that you don't have to hike up a mountain with a tripod in the middle of the night

. I always try to bring a friend when I end up out on the trails after dark because it can get spooky pretty quickly with the winds and the brush and a constant paranoia of mountain lions haha.

Mar 29, 2021 at 07:01 PM

Jeff Nolten
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Do you drive up there for the night or stay somewhere? My daughter used to rent one of the cabins which I've never done. I should do that maybe.

BTW some other SD hiking I like is the torrey pines extension and the marsh trail near the railroad. Haven't ever done those at night. Maybe I should.

-- I have to admit that this covid lockdown has my wanderlust up.

Mar 29, 2021 at 07:40 PM

kezeka
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Jeff Nolten wrote:
Do you drive up there for the night or stay somewhere? My daughter used to rent one of the cabins which I've never done. I should do that maybe.

BTW some other SD hiking I like is the torrey pines extension and the marsh trail near the railroad. Haven't ever done those at night. Maybe I should.

-- I have to admit that this covid lockdown has my wanderlust up.

Torrey Pines is technically closed at night... but it is very peaceful there at night and the photos are actually quite worthwhile if you have a moon to light the landscape! I'll have to check out these trails, I honestly haven't done your favorite one up in the laguna area but I have drive past there many times. Saw someone set up with a iMac on a table for a photo shoot in one of the meadows off of the 79 the other day and got a good chuckle out of it.

I've never spent the night up there mostly because i work overnights and am usually pretty awake when I am driving up there at 1am for these photos. I'll probably make my annual journey up in may on a new moon with clear skies to shoot the milky way arch soon!

Mar 30, 2021 at 03:39 PM

Jeff Nolten
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Aurora in Fairbanks

I'll have to look at the signs; neither is in Torrey Pines proper but probably the same rules apply. One hike goes right by a ranger's residence.

Here is a link to the Sunset Trail Map. It loops around Big Laguna Lake but there are a number of variations. I like that it also has views to the west.

I've never spent the night up there mostly because i work overnights and am usually pretty awake when I am driving up there at 1am for these photos. I'll probably make my annual journey up in may on a new moon with clear skies to shoot the milky way arch soon!

That sounds like a real advantage for doing this kind of photography. I'm usually a day person and it would take real gumption on my part to drive up there starting that time of night.

Mar 30, 2021 at 04:37 PM

Jim McCann
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Aurora in Fairbanks

Nice Aurora. There are indeed a considerable number of other places to go and photograph the aurora, but further up the road from where you took these can be pretty good. I think you should have gone up the Chena Hot Springs road as suggested. Do it next trip.

Mar 30, 2021 at 10:03 PM


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