Da15:










Samyang 14:

[canajuneh]

Wonderful shots. I'm a sucker for auroras so of course, I love your captures of them. The moon and tree is great too.

[Heinrich Lohmann]

What an absolute wonderful series, the first one is the best "Northern Lights" shot that I have ever seen. It reminds me of our Yukon Years, it was a rare occasion to see so many colors in a single display. Thanks for posting them.

[Aon]

Here's another voice praising the beauty of all these images, most especially the first and last.
ABOUT AURORAS: As Aon stated, auroras depend on solar activity, specifically the number of sunspots. Plasma thrown out by flares associated with sunspots is drawn into the poles by the Earth's magnetic field. As it crashes into the atmosphere, the plasma causes the beautiful erie glow we call an aurora. The phenomenon is best seen far to the north, but some very intense solar output during the current, increasing sunspot cycle made the aurora visible as far south as Kansas a few times. The aurora is not dependent on Earthly seasons, but since it is only visible at night, it's more commonly observed during the longer nights of northern winter. Auroras are not reported from the southern hemisphere as frequently as the northern simply because the conformation of the continents means that vastly more humans live close enough to the north pole than to the south pole to see the phenomenon.

phantastic, so wonderfull

Nicely done Antti. Those Aurora shots are cool.

Wonderful shots. I'm a sucker for auroras so of course, I love your captures of them. The moon and tree is great too.

What an absolute wonderful series, the first one is the best "Northern Lights" shot that I have ever seen. It reminds me of our Yukon Years, it was a rare occasion to see so many colors in a single display. Thanks for posting them.

Thanks so much for the comments guys!

Now I don't know if I should sell my Samyang 14 and buy the DA15 or not. Great shots!

Thanks! Well, DA15 is certainly a nice lens. I bought the Samyang because it's 2.8, nice to have it along when it's really dark.

[RobG]

Plasma thrown out by flares associated with sunspots is drawn into the poles by the Earth's magnetic field. As it crashes into the atmosphere, the plasma causes the beautiful erie glow we call an aurora.

Just to put this slightly differently, the "plasma" consists of charged particles ejected by the sun. Because they have a charge, they are attracted to the lines of force in the Earth's magnetic field, and follow those lines toward the north and south poles. As the particles hit the gases in the atmosphere, light is released. The strange shapes in the aurora are the parts of the Earth's magnetic field made visible by the impact of the particles onto the atmosphere. The density of the incoming particles (the "Solar Wind") is also uneven, so they interact randomly to result in these beautiful lightshows.

Great photos! I hope to see the aurora myself one day - whether Aurora australis (southern lights) or Aurora borealis (northern lights).

[WPRESTO]

AURORA ON THE WAY: A massive flair on the sun on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7 promises to generate spectacular auroras about Thursday/Friday March 8 & 9. At least some of the activity might be visible in much of Europe and the northern USA. Away from the poles, an aurora may only be visible as a colorful glow along the northern horizon, somewhat like the glow of a distant large city, but sometimes the curtain effect is seen.