Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

foto-webcam.eu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 406 posts

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#211

Post by matsemann »

Geee wrote: post #196
deadbabe wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok why is it that some people say northern lights look EXACTLY like these spectacular photos, and others say in real life they are actually barely visible and you need a camera and very dark skies? Is there some kind of running joke I’m missing? I saw some northern lights in Iceland but they were very dim and underwhelming, I didn’t even know what I was looking at until I photographed them and saw the vivid green str…

Yeah, typically northern lights look like faint white clouds with a little bit of green tint to naked eye. The photos are like those time-exposure photos of the milky way, which is not what the eye sees.

While they "typically" look like that, because most often they're quite weak, I wouldn't compare it to milky way photos. If it's strong, especially if you're up north and somewhere with little light pollution, what you see is comparable to lots of pictures.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#212

Post by mattbee »

docapotamus wrote: post #22

I live in rural very northern England. It’s incredible, clear with the naked eye. iPhone 14 camera with 3s exposure is out of this world (pun intended, but misleading)

Since we're all scientists here, I'll report a negative from central York. My wife and I stood up in the attic looking out of the Velux for 10 minutes. It was dark, clear and we were could see from NE-ish to SE-ish. We couldn't really call it. A very subtle effect on a 10s smartphone exposure, mayyybe? I will compare with tonight.

We once rented a beautiful, slightly remote house on a beach outside Reykjavik and one night, the sky danced for us. So I don't feel hard done-by.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#213

Post by noman-land »

punnerud wrote: post #198
retrac wrote: post #131

If you want the best possible view with the naked eye, give them a chance to adapt to the dark properly. The human eye is about 100,000 more sensitive after an hour in total darkness. A smartphone screen or car headlight is enough to undo it.

Use the old pirate trick and keep an eye patch over one of the eyes, and switch when going outside. They used it to be able to see inside the boat going from bright sunlight.

This is genius.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#215

Post by sagischwarz »

Here are some phone pics from my home village in Germany: https://www.nowhereinparticular.xyz/polarlichter.html

This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My brother, who is a hobby astronomer, called me and sent me outside. Initially, I saw only a faint red glow in the northeast of the sky, but after a few minutes, my eyes adapted and I could see how it slowly moved and changed its form over time. I stayed outside for maybe 15 minutes and then went back inside. An hour later, I went outside again and almost the whole sky was shining in all different colors and forms, from patches to clouds to pillars that seemed to support the heavens, ever chaning. Incredible.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#216

Post by rahkiin »

hackernewds wrote: post #203
amatecha wrote: post #11

Wow! Check out the view from the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland! https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/live/webcams/#webcam-jungfrauj...

what am I expecting to see?

These are live webcams. At the time it was sent it was probably showing the aurora

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#217

Post by silisili »

deadbabe wrote: post #191
chgs wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t look like that in reality. If I take a photo on my phone here in the UK midlands I get pink and green in all directions with a 3 second exposure. However with just the naked eye it’s like super high level clouds

Ok why is it that some people say northern lights look EXACTLY like these spectacular photos, and others say in real life they are actually barely visible and you need a camera and very dark skies? Is there some kind of running joke I’m missing? I saw some northern lights in Iceland but they were very dim and underwhelming, I didn’t even know what I was looking at until I photographed them and saw the vivid green str…

As someone who has never seem them, what I wish most people would do is attempt to edit said photos to 'about what it looked like to my eyes.'

You can find some online, but they range from 'just like the picture' to 'random fog', so one is left not knowing what to believe.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#218

Post by olive247 »

punnerud wrote: post #198
retrac wrote: post #131

If you want the best possible view with the naked eye, give them a chance to adapt to the dark properly. The human eye is about 100,000 more sensitive after an hour in total darkness. A smartphone screen or car headlight is enough to undo it.

Use the old pirate trick and keep an eye patch over one of the eyes, and switch when going outside. They used it to be able to see inside the boat going from bright sunlight.

Wait no way? That’s where the pirate eye patch trope comes from? There was a practical reason?

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#219

Post by codetrotter »

erikbye wrote: post #207
codetrotter wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. As mentioned though we were in the middle of Norway, not north. Well, actually the proper term for where we were at is East Norway. And I guess by official standards the middle of Norway is further north than where I consider the middle of Norway to be. To be very specific, we were in Gjøvik.

Here's a few crappy phone pics from near Oslo on a night (evening, around 19 I think) it was very visible with the naked eye. 0.5 seconds exposure. https://www.flickr.com/search/?sort=date-taken-desc&safe_sea...

That’s awesome! Wish I get to see it that visible too.
Post reply on HN