Northern Lights thumbnails only

I had a distraction this week. The space weather forecast was redlined. It couldn't get much better. A long period of Kp 8 was predicted from sunset into the next day (as I shared with you in a news post).

A Kp 8 could be visible from my yard in central Pennsylvania. But then, I remembered Bryan's Law of Astronomical Events: If there is an astronomical event happening, all locations within a reasonable drive will be totally cloud-covered.

So, shocking was the National Weather Service forecast for 0% cloud cover and 0% wind speed, an unbelievable combination for an unusual night sky event I'm chasing, and that forecast was for the duration of the Kp 8 prediction. Game on. An adventure began.

Reasonable Northern Lights displays are rare in central PA, and I didn't have a go-to location list prepared for this opportunity. I needed good visibility of the sky and wanted dark skies, especially to the north, with a foreground subject being a bonus.

Shooting from home was an option. A nearby field provided the desired visibility, and our sky is moderately dark, especially when the air clarity is high. I could drive a short distance from the house and be shooting in minutes.

Still, the forecast was outstanding enough to make researching an even better location worthwhile. That my wife hadn't seen the Northern Lights in about two decades and had recently asked to see them again raised the bar on location selection.

Scouting the Pennsylvania state forest maps for vistas looking north and online scouting via images captured from those locations provided a few good options within a couple-of-hour drive. However, a high elevation (for PA) lake I scouted for Milky Way photography earlier in the summer was in a dark sky location with no close towns to the north. Most subjects are even better when their reflection is included, and the rare 0 mph wind forecast made the lake option seem especially great. A bonus was that the lake was a 1.5-hour drive north, deeper into the Northern Lights visibility range.

The lake was a perfect location. It was calm, and we (and a pack of loud coyotes) had it to ourselves for the entire night.

Reaching Kp 8.5+, the 10/10/2024 Northern Lights show was a 10. I've had the privilege of viewing and photographing the Northern Lights numerous times, but this show was different from what I normally see. The lights did not have a strong structure and they were not hte brightest I've seen, but the color was wild, with the reds and even some blues being especially amazing.

Consider the Northern Lights a fast-moving subject, as they are often pulsing and dancing. A wide aperture lens is needed to avoid strong motion blur, the smearing of the aurora details.

My favorite two aurora lenses, the Sony FE 14mm F1.8 GM and FE 24mm F1.4 GM Lens, each mounted to an Alpha 1 body for fast switching, were in the MindShift Gear BackLight 26L. Both lenses performed superbly as always.

I love it when only a 0.6-second shutter speed is needed to properly expose the Northern Lights. That setting indicates a super-bright show.

Not immediately apparent in a still photo is that the Northern Lights are often a fast action subject, and the dancing and pulsing light show is awesome. In a long exposure, that movement results in a blurry result. Wide aperture lenses (and, of course, a bright show) are optimal for capturing the aurora structure.

This night's display was extremely bright, permitting a relatively short 0.6-second exposure at f/1.4 and ISO 3200, and it was moving fast. Shooting straight up into the aurora is one of my favorite compositions, but the fast movement made guessing the ideal future composition challenging. It was exciting to anticipate and view the results.

We are at or near a solar maximum. Do you have the right Northern Lights lenses in your kit?

This night was the third over-4-hour road trip all-nighter in 4 days. I don't remember the tiredness, but as usual, the images were worth the effort.

While the stars are not unusual for Pennsylvania, the Northern Lights are. As I shared recently, the epic Northern Lights in Pennsylvania was worthy of a distraction.

While I love the look of the Northern Lights fully contained in the frame (though even the Sony FE 14mm F1.8 GM Lens couldn't always contain all this light show), I also appreciate tighter framing of the lights.

In this case, the Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM Lens captured a transition area that features stars (part of the Milky Way) in the upper-left corner of the frame. The shoreline's vertical position in the frame was based on the termination of visible color at the bottom of the frame (a dark border included) combined with alignment on the lower 1/3 line in the viewfinder. The balance of the frame illustrates the incredible color of the lights.

We are at or approaching a solar maximum when the Northern Lights are strongest and most frequent. Don't expect much notice before the next show. Do you have the right lenses in your kit? Here are some recommendations:

The Best Canon Astrophotography Lens
The Best Canon Astrophotography DSLR Lens
The Best Sony Astrophotography Lens

When cost, time, and effort are invested into a photography trip, generally only the best-available gear (or something new being reviewed) makes the pack. Milky way and aurora nightscape photography opportunities were on the potential list for a recent trip, and my three favorite night sky lenses were packed specifically for these subjects.

• Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM Lens
• Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G Lens
• Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM Lens

When the milky way is visible, the scene is extremely dark. While the milky way exposures are long, the earth is rotating, creating a form of action photography.

The aurora has varying intensities and can be pulsing and dancing around the frame. If the exposure is too long, the dancing and pulsing aurora turns into a big smear of color. Thus, aurora photography also involves action, an action that is often moving considerably faster than the earth's rotation.

Wide apertures are a big advantage for stopping action, and each of the lenses included in the above list is the widest available at its respective focal length. Just because a lens has a wide aperture does not mean that you want to use that aperture, as many wide aperture lenses are not sharp wide open, becoming considerably sharper as they are stopped down. However, those in the above list are outstanding performers wide open.

While the f/1.4 aperture is a clear advantage held by the FE 24 over the other two lenses, f/1.8 is still very wide. Motion blur is caused when subject details cross over pixel wells on the imaging sensor. Because the 24mm focal length magnifies subject details more than the 14mm and 20mm options, a slightly faster shutter speed is required to photograph the same subject at the same distance with an equivalent amount of motion blur. This shutter speed difference offsets some of the aperture difference.

Mostly, I selected between these three prime lenses based on the angle of view they provide.

The day started with a 5:30 AM alarm and a long search for moose. Upon returning late morning, we learned that the northern lights forecast was favorable. However, the weather did not appear to be favorable, with heavy cloud cover promising to block all higher altitude subjects. Still, the National Weather Service hourly forecast showed the skies expected to clear at 2:00 AM at our desired viewing location. That time coincided with the moon setting, yielding darker skies.

After a short nap, a 2-hour drive ensued, heading north for darker skies and a favorable viewing location. Intermittently checking the skies, the clearing began right on schedule. Unfortunately, the aurora was not yet apparent to the eye. Dim northern lights are considerably easier to see in a long exposure image, so cameras were mounted to tripods and put into action. Test images showed a small vertical column forming over Denali, the mountain in the bottom of this image.

Initially, the northern lights were small, muted, and stationary. The 24mm lens made the little show larger in the frame than the other two lens options, and also accentuated Denali in the foreground.

The show progressed, significantly increasing in intensity and motion, with this image requiring only a 4-second exposure at f/1.4 and ISO 2500. Eventually, the 20mm angle of view (sample here) was needed to take it all in, and the 14mm angle of view (sample here) became optimal not long afterward.

We pulled into the driveway at 6:30 AM. Aside from a short nap and a few eyes-closed rests, it was a 25-hour day. As is usually the case, I struggle to remember the details of the exhaustion, but the memory of the dancing northern lights is still clear, and the images will last a lifetime, keeping the memory alive.

As I share this image, the Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G Lens is one of my three favorite night sky lenses.

While it is one of three, it is not always the third choice. This lens is my first choice when the 20mm angle of view is desired.

Read the full story behind this northern lights shoot in the Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM Lens sample image from the same night.

As I share this image, the Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM Lens is one of my three favorite night sky lenses.

While it is one of three, it is not always the third choice. This lens is my first choice when the 14mm angle of view is desired.

Read the full story behind this northern lights shoot in the Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM Lens sample image from the same night.