The Northern Lights Seen From Delaware
We saw the Aurora Borealis the other night from Delaware a rarity for sure
These pictures were a collaborative effort. I screwed up my focus and Mike Givens fixed it later.
Hunter Outten for the heads up to get myself (ass) and camera outside and look north. I saw the aurora alert earlier that day and blew it off. We never get a good view of the northern lights. I don’t expect to see what is seen up north I know better. The camera sees the most in our case down here in Delaware, but you need an intense aurora borealis to occur.
When there is heavy red and yellow in the banding on the aurora map. Then we have a chance of catching the aurora, but with our cameras only, since it will be a faint red. You can’t see the red with the naked eye from Delaware or the green for that matter. That was not the case the other night … I saw red.
For the first time I actually saw red in the sky form the northern lights, it was faint, but it was there and then it got a little brighter. The last picture at the end of this article shows you about what I saw with the naked eye.
I never set a camera up so fast in my life, and then started hammering the remote camera switch. It was set to take a 15 second exposure. Meanwhile I’m pushing the button like I’m waiting for an elevator. If I keep hammering this it will just keep taking more pictures right? I’m so excited I check the camera settings and change my focus to auto. No, I have no idea why I did that either. In my mind it was on manual where it was supposed to be … first mistake. This is why photography is like fishing. You are going to mess up the process somewhere, and then over think it. Because you are at a dead run to your favorite spot, trying to redo settings on the fly. Gotta make that first cast, just make sure you closed the swivel.
While I’m hammering away at the remote trigger. I take a phone picture with my Samsung S22 Ultra, killer camera. In night mode it gets a nice shot. I’m still banging on this remote button. The camera is taking autofocus, out of focus pictures. I’m still stunned stupid staring at a red sky, amazed because I have never seen this before. I can see the camera is picking up some serious color. Looks like I got a red pillar shot? I take another phone picture. I’m still hammering the remote trigger button. One picture every 15 seconds, I change the camera settings for a longer exposure just to see … Still hasn’t registered the camera is on autofocus. You can’t take night sky shots with autofocus you have to use manual. I’m just thinking these pictures will be awesome.
I take another phone picture or two hundred. Hunter calls …
…. That damn cloud is in my way I’m headed west for a better view ….
I tell him I have a decent spot but that is about to change and it seems to be dropping down intensity anyway. I can’t see it anymore with the naked eye. The camera is still picking up decent color it seems, as is the phone camera. By the time Hunter makes his destination the intensity has dropped, and his damn cloud is now in my way.
There is another flare up predicted on Aurora Alerts so we wait. Once you get past midnight it is harder to see anyway due to the angle and we have about forty minutes to that hour.
The second flare up occurs, but the intensity is not like before and is higher up in the air (angle). I have finally discovered my autofocus foul up. There are many a woodland creature awake now from that moment of discovery. At least the manual shots are looking good now too, but the sky has faded to more of a pinkish, slight red on camera. I have no idea how to edit these pictures, but I shoot in raw for this reason. I don’t know how to edit, but I always shoot in raw because I was once told, ALAYS SHOOT IN RAW just in case. Glad I did this time around. Shout out to Mike Givens, he was able to clean up four of my shots. I am pleased to say the least. The phone shots looked good too, but that should have been on a tripod and not handheld for better results. There is always something you will not like about your shots.
I am stoked I got pictures of an aurora borealis from Delaware in my backyard.
These are all Samsung S22 Ultra phone pictures below of the northern lights seen from Delaware. The four pictures above was my “real” camera. I need a new camera, as well as maybe remember those focus settings … anyway … The camera was a 30 to 70 MM lens, 4.8 and set at 15 seconds with an 800 ISO.
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