Last night' storm was breathtaking. It started shortly after sunset. This image shows the entire auroral crown with all the colors and dynamic textures frozen in time by a 6 sec. exposure. The Moon was still up, so I was shooting at ISO 2500 (f2.8) at 24mm on a full frame Nikon Z7, WB 4000K. This was the perfect send as the show started right after I arrived on location and started shooting. Greens and reds plainly visible.

Finally looks like we are going to have clear skies tonight so fingers crossed that there's still some action left in this! Super inspiring images :D

This morning at 142 AM local time or 642Z

Location Lost River State Forest

Far Northern Minnesota at 49N

37 minutes ago, northerner said:

Finally looks like we are going to have clear skies tonight so fingers crossed that there's still some action left in this! Super inspiring images :D

You're north enough where you should have a much better chance even with lesser activity than most of the rest of us! :)

4 hours ago, Cations said:

@Samrau Did you get interviewed by the news?

I took a timelapse from 7:30pm to 6:10am last night. I'm rendering a short section from about 7:30 to 9:30 since that I think will have the best of the pictures I may have. Who knows, it may be a total failure (don't think so becasue I saw some things with the naked eye and the camera was picking up color on the live display to something similar to the Mt. Katahdin livestream but cutoff horizon. We'll see. I'll run the whole thing later tonight.

I didn't get much last night, plus I didn't frame it that well, the new focal length is challenging. Only got the tops of the good activity, nothing on my horizon. Oh Well, I got a few photos of the really tall columns.

Biggest learning from last night is that I HAVE to go out and away from my house in the future, there is light pollution, but I can deal with that. What I can't deal with is the lack of a good horizon (trees and houses block too much of the horizon for all but the most intense storms). So, good learning experience last night.

@Cations - I'm going to ask a dumb question - but, is there a place on your roof that would give you more elevation over the surrounding area?

(I've been known to climb on the roofs (yes, more than one) to get a better angle...LOL I just can't do it for the Auroras because then I'm too close to trees. But if I want to shoot south or west the roof is better than the ground for most part)

2 minutes ago, NightSky said:

@Cations - I'm going to ask a dumb question - but, is there a place on your roof that would give you more elevation over the surrounding area?

(I've been known to climb on the roofs (yes, more than one) to get a better angle...LOL I just can't do it for the Auroras because then I'm too close to trees. But if I want to shoot south or west the roof is better than the ground for most part)

To an extent yes, but it would not be enough to overcome the limitations for the area. I would need significantly higher to start to gain an advantage. But since it would still have light pollution (neighborhood and nearby city) and still have trees on the horizon there would not be enough of an advantage for going out on the roof (especially since it would be very difficult). I'm already on top of a hill which helps significantly, just not enough for last night's substorm.

I'm just going to have to find a site to drive to, there should be a few within 15-20 minutes. More within a half hour and possibly even up a mountain.

3 minutes ago, Cations said:

I'm just going to have to find a site to drive to, there should be a few within 15-20 minutes.

Even a small lake or an open field will give you enough room to see closer to the horizon, so look for those.

I just go in our south side horse pasture so I can get a little farther away from the trees on the north side, to get a view over them. Not ideal, but I'm not right under trees, either. Of course our Okie trees are not very tall, but I'm only about 350 feet from the closest ones, and that already helps a LOT. So you don't need to be super high, or your open area doesn't need to be a mile wide, either.

Edited October 1Oct 1 by NightSky

1 hour ago, Cations said:

Biggest learning from last night is that I HAVE to go out and away from my house in the future

Agree 1000000%. Driving to a place with unobstructed and less light polluted horizon has 10^6 times bigger impact than a lens. Both obstruction and light pollution need to be minimized as much as possible (feasible).

I have a decent location that is 18 minutes away (of maniac driving) but there is a small town north, and even when there is a smidgen of a cloud, the town illuminates it and then the images have a bright spot across the aurora. I need to find a better place but it is very hilly here with many trees (we are one of the prime leaf peeping locations), so satisfying both of the above conditions is very hard.

18 minutes ago, JessicaF said:

Agree 1000000%. Driving to a place with unobstructed and less light polluted horizon has 10^6 times bigger impact than a lens. Both obstruction and light pollution need to be minimized as much as possible (feasible).

I have a decent location that is 18 minutes away (of maniac driving) but there is a small town north, and even when there is a smidgen of a cloud, the town illuminates it and then the images have a bright spot across the aurora. I need to find a better place but it is very hilly here with many trees (we are one of the prime leaf peeping locations), so satisfying both of the above conditions is very hard.

37 minutes ago, NightSky said:

Even a small lake or an open field will give you enough room to see closet to the horizon, so look for those.

I just go in our south side horse pasture so I can get a little farther away from the trees on the north side, to get a view over them. Not ideal, but I'm not right under trees, either. Of course our Okie trees are not very tall, but I'm only about 350 feet from the closest ones, and that already helps a LOT. So you don't need to be super high, or your open area doesn't need to be a mile wide, either.

I've got a location that my friend used (and a decent number of others) during the May 10th storm. It is on top a hill, overlooking a field (then trees after the field, like everywhere around here. But it has a decent view and the background is trees (= better than houses).

I'm also intrigued by the high school. It is literally the top of a hill, nickname is Hilltop (like in the Walking Dead). It is like an ancient hilltop fort and you can see for miles from the top in all directions except one (North is acceptable, but I need to verify with my compass rather than my car's compass which I might be misinterpreting). The only problem is it is lit up brightly at night (North less so than the other directions). But the lights would be at my back (I would be shooting away from the lights). Might rule it out though, but wow, if that location worked, it is 15-20 minutes away depending on traffic and the views are outstanding.

So those are the two places I'll scout. Then I will search out the dark sky sites near me and then the mountains and maybe even an elevation contour map.

13 minutes ago, Cations said:

Then I will search out the dark sky sites near me and then the mountains and maybe even an elevation contour map.

Use google maps, switch to 3D view and you can see the contours and views really well. Then you can go to the street view (closest possible) and see if it's close to what you need. Make a list of the best locations and go scout!

What ist this? High, low, high, low,... Never see something like that before.

Wish everyone a wonderful night with many, beautiful auroras.💗 Here it's so cloudy, no chance to see something. 😪

This is just odd, every magnetometer from the north and down to Denmark took a nosedive as the IMF swapped but there's nothing to be seen 👀

1 minute ago, Rudolph said:

This is just odd, every magnetometer from the north and down to Denmark took a nosedive as the IMF swapped but there's nothing to be seen 👀

Right now, aurorae are mostly at latitudes 57-60°, judging by my friends' cameras. It's cloudy here.

I think we may be in the CIR of CHs 83 and 84 at this point. It shouldn't be too long until we fully transition into the HSS.

It's pretty decent up here at 64°N. This storm just keeps on giving. On a day like this with a clear sky the aurora illuminates the surroundings as if it was moonlight 😀

Trøndelag, Norway, 2025-10-01 20:20 UTC

Edited October 1Oct 1 by Abu Jazar

Just now, Samrau said:

Right now, aurorae are mostly at latitudes 57-60°, judging by my friends' cameras. It's cloudy here.

I'm at 59° but it's cloudy to the north. Think I need new glasses or something 😂

Utrolig vakkert @Abu Jazar , det er vel det svakt grønne lyset jeg har sett i skyene mot nordvest.

Edited October 1Oct 1 by Rudolph

10 minutes ago, Abu Jazar said:

It's pretty decent up here at 64°N. This storm just keeps on giving. On a day like this with a clear sky the aurora illuminates the surroundings as if it was moonlight 😀

Trøndelag, Norway, 2025-10-01 20:20 UTC

WOW. Most of us can only dream of aurora this bright. Have FUN in there!

Review of the time lapses from last night there were two main bursts I caught. The best was around 8:30pm and there was another around 11:18pm for about 10 minutes.

There could be more that were quicker but it's going to take about 10 hours of computer rendering time to process everything.

I'm still getting used to the new lenses.

Now I see why everyone said get the 14mm 1.4 ...

On 9/29/2025 at 1:36 PM, Samrau said:

Today is my day! Wow 😲 tytytyty Sun 🙇🙇🙇

I see the SAR in here. Great job capturing it, Samrau. You said it was over your head, right? It is so easy to miss unless someone images the entire sky. It must have been a strong substorm.

Just scouted the hill. Seems like a good place to shoot. Lots of wide open area in the view to the North. It's right off a road so there are a lot of cars driving by. Plus teenagers doing teenage crap. Took some test shots but had no tripod

16 minutes ago, Cations said:

Just scouted the hill. Seems like a good place to shoot. Lots of wide open area in the view to the North. It's right off a road so there are a lot of cars driving by. Plus teenagers doing teenage crap. Took some test shots but had no tripod

Go back and shoot the teens doing their crap, monetize on the internet LOL

R U chasing tonight? It is building. Katahdin is already showing diffuse greens and some diffuse pinks. They need to slash the ISO though as the Moon grows.

Mt Katahdin is getting green for sure. Looks like a big arc but I think it's just an artifact y tg

I don't know, if it keeps growing I might if I can stay awake.

The teens weren't interesting just bragging about girls they probably wouldn't actually have any chance with.

15 minutes ago, JessicaF said:

Go back and shoot the teens doing their crap, monetize on the internet LOL

R U chasing tonight? It is building. Katahdin is already showing diffuse greens and some diffuse pinks. They need to slash the ISO though as the Moon grows.

Kiruna mags are going nuts but nothing is happening in Canada yet. Soon we will be in 100s with HP. Something has got to happen. The Moon. The Moon. :(

The green arc on Katahdin is real. That's the Aurora arc. Btw, I do not see the arc from my location. I am missing those 3.5 devs in latitude wrt katahdin.

Edited October 2Oct 2 by JessicaF

K8 Substorm?? I don't see much on webcams though.