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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

#171

Post by lambdasquirrel »

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.

Makes sense.. all the serious astronomy apps are in black and red, and back before we had phones, we used to use red flashlights if we needed to consult our charts.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#172

Post by porphyra »

amatecha wrote: post #59
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

Yeah, camera sensors (depending on filtering) are far more sensitive to the dim light of the aurora than our eyes. Still means you can get utterly amazing photography there already! :)

Human eyes are basically black and white in low light since rod cells can't detect color.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#173

Post by chicagojoe »

cozzyd wrote: post #162

Just saw it in downtown Chicago (by the lake). Faint, but visible with naked eye. Easier to capture with my pixel 8 than with my (handheld) DSLR, even with a fast lens...kicking myself for not grabbing my tripod

Fellow Chicagoan here! I went down one of the piers and saw it as well. At first it looked like cirrus clouds but the colors emerged as my eyes acclimated. I thought it was my brain hallucinating the details it expected but my phone validated what I was seeing. Truly stunning even with just a 2sec exposure.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#174

Post by ipqk »

ninkendo wrote: post #157

Checking in from Detroit here… the aurora is actually super visible on the iPhone camera. Much more than from the naked eye (although they are slightly visible… I have a lot of light pollution around me though.) I’m curious what causes it to come in better in my iPhones sensors… different wavelengths perhaps?

longer exposure times.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#175

Post by gareth_untether »

grafelic wrote: post #126
niutech wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you share a photo?

I took one semi successful photo using my crappy beat-down a20e Samsung phone. It doesn't do what we saw justice at all. https://imgur.com/5mlD22W

When I took photos of the northern lights on my Sony RX1 the colours became much stronger. I assumed all digital cameras captured the colours better than our eyes.

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#176

Post by lwansbrough »

grafelic wrote: post #101

I feel I need to report my experience from Denmark, Jutland. It started with white broad streaks, which most of all looked like fog, but then perhaps after 10 minutes or so, we saw colors of red, purple and green begin to emerge from the these streaks. Most astoundingly it all seemed to emanate from a fluctuating point in the middle of the sky. If you looked closely at this point you could see it fall into itself, mo…

Someone shared something similar on Twitter: https://x.com/packyM/status/1789113052723314918

Re: Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora

#177

Post by dylan604 »

gareth_untether wrote: post #175
grafelic wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took one semi successful photo using my crappy beat-down a20e Samsung phone. It doesn't do what we saw justice at all. https://imgur.com/5mlD22W

When I took photos of the northern lights on my Sony RX1 the colours became much stronger. I assumed all digital cameras captured the colours better than our eyes.

Yes, an electronic sensor is much more sensitive than our eyes. However, even within digital sensors, some are more sensitive than others. Add that sensitivity with the ability to do long exposure, and you can capture things we will never see with our naked eyes. Even with binoculars or telescopes, our eyes will just seem more photons, but pretty much without the color. That's where the digital sensors really "shine"
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