The dark season is ending and we're running out of darkness here in the northern hemisphere. This panoramic shot from last night shows a beautiful colored night sky filled with the Milky Way and the Northern Lights. As always I feel a bit sad that the stars is fading away for and I will miss nights like this during the summer. On the other hand, the bright summer nights is truly magic with their colors, they sure make a great substitute for the loss of the starry nights.
So this will most likely be my last Milky Way with Aurora shot for this season, but what a great finale it was! Se you on the other side Milky Way!
Last night we did get some really nice Northern Lights and at 20:45 UT we did get this activity as shown in the video. Both video sequences was shot using a Nikon D5 with a Nikon 24 mm f/1.4 lens. Exposure was 1/25 sec. at 24 mm f/1.4 with ISO 25,600. Cover photo was also taken using the Nikon D5 and 24 mm f/1.4 lens.
Last night I had a visit from a Swedish photography magazine (Fotosidan Magasin) doing an article about me and my work. We were lucky to get a clear and dark sky and we even managed to get some colorful Northern Lights. At first we could hardly see the aurora but for a short while it turned into some faint pillars dancing across the sky. To the naked eye we could barley make out any colors, the human eye isn't that good at seeing colors in the dark. Fortunately our cameras doesn't have the same problem, they are very good at seeing colors in low light since they can capture light for a longer period of time.
Yes! Tonight I got to see my first Northern Lights for this season. Finally the season begins after several months of waiting. In a couple of weeks we will have astronomical nights so then the display will be even better.
The landscape is lit up by a 96% waxing gibbous Moon.
Today I'm featured as Astronomy Picture Of the Day at NASA with my photo Aurora Arc. It was taken on the 12th of April 2016 at 23:20 UTC just 2 km outside of down town Östersund. It's a panorama made from 6 photos (Two rows with 3 photos each) covering 180° of the sky.
Earlier that night me and a couple of friends had been out watching for the Aurora but the clouds blocked our view. Later at night when I was on my way home I stopped by this pier to take one last look and suddenly this really bright perfectly shaped arc emerged. It lasted for 5-10 minutes before fading away.
I'm extremely proud and honored to announce that the Swedish postal service (PostNord) will be releasing 5 of my Northern Lights photos as international stamps later this year.
I was contacted by PostNord in December of 2014. They told me that they were planning to release a series of international stamps on the theme of the Northern Lights. They had been in contact with Rymdstyrelsen, the Swedish National Space Board, who told PostNord about my work. The selection process and the design has been going on during 2015 and now the stamps are ready for publication on November 10, 2016.
Here's a photo I took back in October this year. It's a sky filled with bright Northern Lights as seen from inside of a golf hole on a green. A green sky as seen from inside of a green.
The aurora season continues to deliver amazing auroras. A few nights ago we had another fantastic show with lots of activity both along the horizon and with a beautiful corona. Here is one shot taken when the aurora was very active and colorful.
On the 26th of August in 2015 there was a fantastic Aurora display over great parts of the northern hemisphere.
Here in Östersund, Sweden, we got some really nice northern lights throughout the night. This was one of the most flaming and pulsating auroras I've seen. For several minutes I just lay on the ground watching the corona shift color and shape very rapidly. The real time footage you see of the corona in this video is a good representation of what I saw.
Finally the dark nights are back and it's a joy to once again be able to enjoy the night sky. The last few nights we have had some really nice aurora displays. The sky is still a bit to bright but for every day its rapidly getting darker.
This photo was taken last night and shows a beautiful aurora arc with some nice curtains to the left. There's also some purple colors in there but they aren't that prominent when the sky is still pretty blue and not black.
I hope we'll get another great aurora season but the number of aurora displays are expected to drop. It's the Sun's activity (sunspots, flares and coronal mass ejections) that causes aurora.
The Sun's activity has a periodic solar cycle of nearly 11 years and in 2014 we passed the latest solar maximum so the solar activity and therefore aurora is expected to drop over the years to come.
While preparing my upcoming exhibition (March 28 here in Östersund, Sweden) I was going through some old photos and found this all sky photo of the beautiful aurora that was visible on March 17 in 2013. While looking at it I realized it actually looks like a big Heron flying in the sky.
I also did a transformed version of the image and then it looks like the Heron is sitting down, looking at the moon and planet Jupiter.
Here you can watch a time lapse movie from that awesome night, a night I remember very well.
If read my last post Dreaming of Aurora you can read about the story behind this movie. This is my first try with real time aurora filming and I learnt a lot during the late hours of this cold night. It was almost pitch black so I'm very impressed that the camera manages to pick up so much data in the aurora. You can find some still photos in the end of the movie that was shot while filming.
Last night I was out watching the yearly Geminid meteor shower. I only counted for 15 meteors during my two hour stay. It was so windy I had to take shelter most of the time and I couldn't see the entire sky. My camera did catch a couple of faint meteors but not bright enough to be visible in this 90 minute exposure composite image.
Hopefully we'll have another good night tonight and a new chance to see some meteors.
This is twos photo that shows the Aurora activity over a longer period of time in the same image.
The first photo was taken on October 2nd in 2013. It was shot at lake Storsjön near Östersund, Sweden. The black silhouette by the horizon is the island of Andersön, it has the shape of someone lying down. Apart from the aurora and star trails, you can also see an airplane, a meteor and lights from cars that passed by. You can watch the Aurora in motion here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YjCIoPHT0U
The second photo was also taken at lake Storsjön. It was taken on August 28th in 2014. Here you can see the island of Frösön in the background and a bridge leading to the island.
Today I'm featured as Astronomy Picture Of the Day at NASA with my photo Equinox Aurora. It was taken on September 24 and is a 360° panoramic view of the entire sky. You can see the Milky Way rise from the East and the aurora to the North. Outside of the all sky circle are reflections in the waters of lake Storsjön near Östersund, Sweden.
Last night I got to see my first Aurora for the season, two days earlier than last year but five days later than my personal record from 2011 (August 14th).
It was a faint aurora that lasted for several hours and as you can see it was quite cloudy. The orange/yellow clouds to the right are clouds that are lit up by the street lights from the city of Östersund and Frösön.
Finally the dark nights are here so we can enjoy the auroras ahead and let us hope that there will be lots of them during the coming season.
I'm proud to announce that my aurora from March 17 in 2013 is used by Coldplay in their unique TV-special Ghost Stories. In the movie my aurora is used when Coldplay performs their new single "A Sky Full of Stars". The movie was shot in Los Angeles earlier this year in front of 800 fans in a specially built amphitheater.
Filmed by Grammy-nominated director Paul Dugdale, Coldplay: Ghost Stories was recorded in a custom-built amphitheatre in front of an audience of 800 fans i Los Angeles earlier this year. The show blends a unique in-the-round performance from the band with cinematic vignettes and immersive 360-degree projections. This TV-special is now broadcast worldwide while Coldplay is touring with their new album "Ghost Stories".
I recorded the aurora over Östersund on 17th of March 2013. It was photographed for 4 hours and then put together to a movie showing the development of the aurora across the entire sky.
Official footage from Ghost StoriesTV Special
Behind the scenes footage of the TV-special
My all sky aurora movie
Factfile about me
I work full time as a professional astrophotographer out of Sweden. My photos has previously been highlighted several times by NASA, National Geographic and other major international online news agencies and magazines. My movies has been broadcast in SVT (Swedish national public TV broadcaster) and Discovery Channel. My aurora movie will also be featured in a new upcoming fulldome show called "Solar Superstorms", a production of Spitz Creative Media, NCSA’s Advanced Visualization Lab, and Thomas Lucas Productions, in association with NASA. I will also contribute with several solar scenes in the movie "Solar Superstorms". In 2013 I was rewarded Astrophotographer of the year in Sweden by the Swedish Astronomical Society.
Coldplay is a British alternative rock band that was formed in London, England, 1996. The group consists of vocalist / pianist / guitarist Chris Martin, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion. Coldplay have sold over 50 million albums and is also known for their hit singles "Yellow", "The Scientist", "Speed of Sound", "Fix You", "Viva la Vida" and the Grammy Award-winning "Clocks".
The last few days I've been going through some of my old photos. Today I visited January 2012 and found my photos from an amazing night with a beautiful aurora. Back then I made a 360° panoramic image showing the entire aurora and projected this as a small planet. I named it The Little Astrophotographer after the well know fairy tale The Little Prince. My little planet photo looks much like that book cover.
I've reworked all the data from scratch and rebuild the little planet image. This time it's much cleaner from noise and I think it has more appealing colors. Just for fun, I also did try a new projection of the old data, I really like the shape of the curved horizon.
