Aurora Borealis

October 10, 2024

The Aurora Borealis made a rare appearance in East Texas tonight! I went out to the Sam Houston State University Observatory to see the spectacle and visit with friends. This was the first time I saw the aurora with my eyes. Most of the time it was very dim, but it showed up well in long-exposure images.

Using the Canon EOS Rebel T3, I started off with 30-second exposures at ISO 800.

I lowered the ISO and took some test images, and finally settled on ISO 400 for the rest. The lower exposure setting helped bring out the detail of the aurora.

The aurora waxed and waned for quite a while. It was naked-eye visible most of the time.

The streaks in the images below are from aircraft.

Finally, the aurora settled down, remaining barely visible to the eye. These images were taken facing east towards the rising Pleiades cluster: