14 December 2006

I’ve lived the first 25 years of my life in Finland, and the past 6 years in Sweden. It may sound odd, but I have never seen the northern lights in those 31 years. It has really started to bother me, so I was determined to finally see the light show this year. I knew that tonight was a great chance because of the big solar flare, and the weather was clear, even if the wind was blowing heavy.

There I stood, at my viewpoint, my eyes wide with amazement when I looked at the pale green aurora arch across the northern sky, with the stars of the Big Dipper shining brightly above. Just when I thought that it couldn’t get any more beautiful, a shooting star flashed below the ’Dipper. I didn’t even make a wish – I didn’t have to. My dream had just come true.

15 December 2006

The light display wasn’t quite as good as it was last night. As I was looking at the faint glow in the north, I realised that yesterday was actually not the first time I’ve ever seen the aurora – I’ve seen this same kind of glow before, but I’ve always just assumed that it’s light reflected on clouds. I guess my expectations have been too high, I’ve always just expected to see the glorious shifting of lights and when that doesn’t happen, I haven’t made the connection between the steady glow and aurora. But having said that, nothing takes away the feeling I had last night. In my mind, I will always remember that moment!

Anyways, this time I had the camera with me. I’m on a steep learning curve… I’ve never done night sky photography before. To start with, how do you compose in the dark?! I could hardly see where the viewfinder was, let alone seeing anything through it… I ended up using my flashlight on the FG tree, aimed the camera at it, and hoped that the Big Dipper would fit in the frame. Lucky me, it did! My mission for tonight – weather permitting – is to expose correctly, as well…