Geminid meteor shower with aurora

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.

The Moon and planet Jupiter

This morning the Moon and planet Jupiter (The little bright dot next to the church tower) had an relatively close encounter, at least from our point of view here on Earth.

The distance to the Moon and Jupiter varies, this morning planet Jupiter was about 1,800 times further away than the Moon. It took the light from the Moon about 1 second to reach my camera, but the light from Jupiter had traveled for almost 40 minutes.

So watching pictures like this is like traveling with a time machine. The old Church tower is present time, watching the Moon we have traveled 1 second back in time and when watching Jupiter we have traveled 40 minutes back in time.

So when this light left Jupiter, I was back home and enjoyed my breakfast. It's things like this that make space so cool :-)

Moonlight Skating

A couple of nights ago me and two friends of mine went ice skating on a frozen lake near Östersund. This night was really magic, no wind, lots of ice crystals in the air and an almost full Moon that shined upon us during our two hours out on the ice. To the right of the Moon you can see the constellation of Orion and down left of the Moon you can see planet Jupiter shining brightly.

Nights like these are almost to good to be true.


Music Stellardrone - Ascent, used under Creative Common Licence

Honored by the city of Östersund

Imorgon väntar en spännande dag. Då ska jag få ta emot ett hedersdiplom från Östersunds kommun för att under året ha "gjort något alldeles speciellt för att sätta Östersund på kartan". Motiveringen lyder "För hans fantastiska bilder och filmer som fått stor internationell uppmärksamhet och som använts av bland annat NASA samt musikgruppen Coldplay."

Det känns fantastiskt hedrande att få denna utmärkelse och samtidigt väldigt inspirerande att fortsätta göra det jag älskar att göra.

Läs mer på Östersund kommuns hemsida

Prisutdelningen sker imorgon kl. 17:30 på Jamtli.

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Honored by the city of Östersund

Tomorrow I will be honored by the city of Östersund for having done something special during the year to put the city of Östersund on the world map.

I'm being honored with this reward for "His amazing photos and films that have received international attention and used by NASA, Coldplay among others."

I'm very honored to receive this award and it's a big inspiration for continue doing what I love to do.

What if...

This is a composite image of white light photography through a normal tele lens and a shot of the sun through a hydrogen alpha telescope. The size of the hydrogen alpha Sun is scaled to match the size that was seen through the tele lens.

Just imagine how it would be like to see a sunset like this.

Shot taken in May 2013 on the island of Frösön close to the city of Östersund, Sweden. The church in the foreground is Rödö kyrka.

Crescent Moon and Earthshine

Tonight's crescent Moon sets behind a small cabin. The night side of the Moon is lit by so called Earthshine, sunlight that is reflected from the Earth to the night side of the Moon.

Lunar Trinity - The Father, the Son and the Moon

Here's a shot of the Moon I took this morning. In the foreground is a bronze statue here in Östersund that's called Father and Son made by artist Olof Ahlberg in 1917.

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.