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Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

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Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#371

Post by marssaxman »

fch42 wrote: post #299
Geee wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you ever have the chance to see the Milky way from Namibia, the Andes, the Western Australian desert, you may revise your view there. The dust clouds and star streams extend far out and make it appear like "standing on the bridge of as starship". It looks very 3D. Still not colorful, but immersive and so much detail. Alas, in the northern hemisphere, we've been pretty good eradicating nighttime darkness (and a lot…

In the northern hemisphere, you can enjoy that view - spectacularly - from Mauna Kea. I had never before realized that you could perceive depth in the sky.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#372

Post by lukan »

asicsarecool wrote: post #368
lukan wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever tried to climb a rope ladder on a moving ship? Stereo vision is helpful on ships (and allmost everywhere else where you need eyes), even when not boarding.

I don't have binocular vision. I lived aboard a sailboat for a few years. I'm quite active with rock climbing etc and I honestly don't think I would be able to do anything better if I had binocular vision... Just a thought

Good for you!

But I know I am worse doing climbing etc. with one eye.

It is probably something you can train and get used to, that it is not such a big deal, but I cannot imagine doing it on the same level one eyed.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#373

Post by GTP »

I missed it last night, but I heard it will repeat it tonight. I'm going to try to see it. It's unheard of at this latitute, currently I'm on an island in Tuscany, center of Italy.

Edit: I found online that the last one visible from Italy was in 2003, so not unheard of but still rare.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#374

Post by [deleted] »

asicsarecool wrote: post #368
lukan wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever tried to climb a rope ladder on a moving ship? Stereo vision is helpful on ships (and allmost everywhere else where you need eyes), even when not boarding.

I don't have binocular vision. I lived aboard a sailboat for a few years. I'm quite active with rock climbing etc and I honestly don't think I would be able to do anything better if I had binocular vision... Just a thought

[deleted]

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#375

Post by manx »

DonaldFisk wrote: post #103

Scotland, 56 degrees north. I expected to see the aurora near the northern horizon, but it was visible east, west and even south, from 11:00pm (2200hrs UTC) until 12:15am (2315UTC). Easily visible to the naked eye. Took good photos on 1 second exposures, ISO 2500.

Do you mind sharing a photo?

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#378

Post by Nition »

silisili wrote: post #217
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…

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.

I was in a place with fair amount of light pollution, and far from where the aurora would be strongest.

These two photos taken with my camera, are approximately how it looked to my eyes after they'd adjusted to the dark:

https://i.imgur.com/8OOiCgX.png https://i.imgur.com/GCpyumd.png

As a comparison, this is how my phone captured the same scene with default settings:

https://i.imgur.com/FCvN3gf.jpeg

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#379

Post by PuffinBlue »

marssaxman wrote: post #370
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…

I wonder the same. My wife and I drove out to a park east of Seattle late last night to spend a couple hours watching the aurora, and it was... okay. I saw some faint grey wisps, like high-altitude clouds, which occasionally faded away and reappeared elsewhere. A mild novelty, but nothing I would bother to seek out again; I assumed we were too far south, or out of the path, and hadn't gotten to see it properly. This…

There are many variables. Visual acuity, how well your eyes can adapt to low light, colour sensitivity, light pollution and cloud cover are just a few. Even standing next to each other two people can have different experiences thanks to those variables.

I am very fortunate to have excellent visual acuity, low light sensitivity and am extremely sensitive to colour/different shades or tones. There are test you can do online for this if you have a well calibrated screen. I also used to be a photographer and worked for years in low light settings documenting events. So I have put that good fortune in the genetic lottery to good use!

So for me, I absolutely saw the full colour display very strongly. I could see variations in colour throughout the height of the column and i could easily make out the striations between the different filaments. I could also easily see the curve of the bands across the northern sky. The colours to me were as obvious as the orange of light pollution you might see from a nearby town. I could see the low level patches of cloud silhouetted against the green and the huge bands of red/pinky red towering up into space.

What I will say though is that even looking at my phone was enough to dull the experience. And minimally strong light in the eye instantly desaturated the colours of the aurora and took a minute or two to recover. So you really do need dark places, dark skies and to really let your eyes full adjust to their maximum possible sensitivity.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#380

Post by silisili »

Nition wrote: post #378
silisili wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I was in a place with fair amount of light pollution, and far from where the aurora would be strongest. These two photos taken with my camera, are approximately how it looked to my eyes after they'd adjusted to the dark: https://i.imgur.com/8OOiCgX.png https://i.imgur.com/GCpyumd.png As a comparison, this is how my phone captured the same scene with default settings: https://i.imgur.com/FCvN3gf.jpeg

Thanks! Certainly two entirely different visuals.
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