Reflected ice skating

On the 19th of December last year, I got to see the most perfect reflection of my home city Östersund I’ve ever seen. During the night, it had been raining and the water together with the flat thin ice formed a perfect gigantic mirror. When these two ice skaters passed by it felt like they were floating in the air, so unreal and beautiful.

This photo and five other of my photos will be exhibited in Badhusparken Östersund starting this Saturday. All six photos are 2.4 x 2.4 meters and the exhibition ends on the 12th of February.

Water on ice creates a perfect mirror.

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Viking sunset

Last night I got the opportunity to shoot two vikings during the sunset. These guys are experienced actors and it was a blast working with them throughout the night. The light was just amazing and I don't think I ever experienced a session that has resulted in so many good images, almost every shot is epic in some way.

Solar halo

Today I've been hanging out with a beautiful reflected solar halo, the first halo for this summer season. It varied in strength throughout the day but I could never see any trace of the 46° halo or arcs. These 22° halos are quite common but for them to reflect in water they need to bee quite strong as it was today. Read more about halos at Atmospheric Optics.

Aurora Arc - Astronomy Picture Of the Day at NASA

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.

Annotated version

I will miss the night

In a couple of days the astronomical nights will end here in Östersund, Sweden. It is always with mixed emotions I see the nights gets shorter and brighter. One part of me will miss the stars and the auroras, but another part of me really loves the bright summer nights.

Last night I was out on the ice of lake Storsjön and it was a fantastic night. No wind at all and a couple of degrees Celsius below zero. There was a faint aurora to the north just below the Milky Way and to the north west I could see planet Venus below the Pleiades.

I will really miss nights like this until they return in early September.

Great Lake Ice

This is a video that I shot on December 12 last year. It was a really cold winter day with temperatures below -20°C. I was out during the whole day and shot the ice forming on lake Storsjön. It was fantastic to see the first ray of lights from the Sun hit the ice covered landscape and colors it in its warm colors. Hopefully this video will show you what I experienced that day.


Music Chris Zabriskie - Clynder Three from the album Cylinders.

Things to look forward to in 2015

A new year starts today, a year filled with exciting astronomical events to look forward to. In this photo you can see the Great Lake Monster looking at a solar halo, an event we hopefully see more of during the winter ahead.

First out is comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), it will soon be visible here in northern Sweden and I'm really looking forward to see and take photos of it. It should double in brightness by mid-January 2015. This puts it just above the threshold for naked-eye visibility and makes it possible to record the comet using only a camera--no telescope required.

One of the biggest astronomical events during 2015 is the total solar eclipse on the 25th of March. In the northern Scandinavia more than 90% of the sun will be covered. To see the total solar eclipse you need to travel to Svalbard or Faroe Islands.

Another great event is the Blue Moon on July 31. A Blue Moon is when there are 2 full moons in one Month. A full moon occurs roughly every 29.5 days so on rare occasions there are two full moons in one month, then the second full moon is called a Blue Moon.

Also NASA's New Horizons will arrive at Pluto, lunar eclipse, meteor showers and more. I'll keep you posted as we're getting closer to them during the year.

Happy new year and clear skies!

The storm is coming

The coming days I will look back on 2014 and show you some of my favorite moments from this year.

We'll start of with this is photo from June. It was one of the most exciting weather fronts I ever seen and it swept in over Östersund with thunderstorms and heavy rain. This photo was taken just a few minutes before the rain started. You can see the rain pouring down in the background.

I really like the structures in the clouds, it almost looks like something out of a SciFi movie.

Aurora long exposure

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.

My Equinox Aurora - Astronomy Picture Of the Day at NASA

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.

Comet ISON over Storsjön in Östersund

Kometen ISON närmar sig solen allt mer. Den 20 november var första gången jag fick tillfälle att fotografera denna omtalade komet. Tyvärr börjar den komma så nära solen nu att den är svår att fotografera. Det hade det redan börjat ljusna en aning efter att ISON kommit upp över horisonten. Den 28 november kommer ISON att runda solen (perihelium) och det blir spännande att se om den överlever den passagen eller om den bryts sönder. Håller den samman så får vi nya chanser att se kometen då den lämnar vårt solsystem.

I övre vänstra hörnet ser ni en närbild av kometen och i bilden till höger har jag ökat ljusstyrkan i bilden för att kometsvansen skall framträda.

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Comet ISON is rapidly closing in on the Sun. On November 20 I finally got to photograph ISON. Unfortunately it's hard to photograph the comet now since it's already so close to the Sun. The sky had already begin to brighten just after ISON came up over the horizon. On 28 November, ISON will be at it closest tot the Sun (perihelion) and it will be interesting to see if it survives the passage or if it will break up. If it holds together, we'll get new views of the comet as it leaves our solar system.

In the upper left corner you can see a closeup of ISON and in the image to the right I've enhanced the brightness to better show the comets tail.

Stostjödjursmånen

Enligt den nordamerikanska bondepraktikan kallas fullmånen i augusti för Störmånen (Efter fisken). Detta för att det var den lättaste fisken att fånga i de stora sjöarna under denna månad. Vi i Jämtland har vår egen stora sjö, Storsjön. Så för att hedra denna augustimåne fick vårt Storsjöodjur omfamna denna måne av de stora sjöarna.

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Acording to the North American Farmers Almanac, the fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of August Moon, Full Sturgeon Moon. Since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month

Here in Östersund we have our own Great Lake, Storsjön (Swedish and translates to Great Lake). We also have a lake monster in Storsjön called The Great Lake Monster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storsjöodjuret)

Here you can see the full moon of August guarded by our Great Lake Monster.