Northern Lights in Layman's Terms

TBKB wrote:

KariP wrote:

TBKB wrote:

I was going to post a new thread but as this one popped up again thought would post here.

Will be going to northern Finland in about 6 weeks and fingers crossed will get a chance to to see Northern lights. Will buy a Samyang 12mm for my XT-3 and have done a bit of reading but would be interested to know what ISO people use or would recommend for the XT-3 and if should shoot wide open or stop down slightly with the Samyang.

Have also read that a lot of people prefocus their lens to infinity and then tape the lens in that position but haven’t seen any mention of what type of tape anyone uses?

I live in Southern Finland and we see auroras only rarely around Finnish Gulf - above Polar Circle the chances are much better.

You will need a tripod and a cable release. Handheld shots will be very difficult . 12mm lens will be perfect.

In February the nights can be very cold in Lapland (if that is the area) - in some places it is possible to borrow/rent decent protective clothes and in many places they organise aurora trips at night . In some areas they really have snow - usually not this much. Difficult to move in the snowy wilderness - do not go alone ...

Just beware the Japanese if you happen to have them in the same group. They can be admiring the lights intensively so that they become almost comatose

Here some official info:

http://aurorasnow.fmi.fi/public_service/

Auroras Now! is a space weather service maintaining by Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) to help watching auroras in Finland.

The service includes auroral monitoring with the all-sky cameras and magnetic field alarm systems for Northern and Southern Finland separately . The magnetic alarms are base on the data of magnetometers measuring the disturbance level of the Earth’s magnetic field at the geophysical observatories in Nurmijärvi andSodankylä.

Thanks, it’s an organised trip so outer protective clothes and boots etc provided and have a couple of evening aurora trips included. Have tripod and wireless remote (hope it works ok in the cold.

Sounds great!

Keep small gear (wireless remote has a tiny battery)  with batteries in a warm pocket - very cold battery looses voltage.

A good idea is to have also a spare  battery for the camera in a warm pocket.  My Fujifilm  cameras have never had problems in cold ( i have had) , but it is very frustrating if the camera stops when a fine aurora comes visible . Warm battery will start the camera again (IF...)

There will be more light in February - daytime photography gets better and some landscapes will be very special. Now in January  it is still quite dark.