Big aurora tonight and Saturday?

Fantastic images, Sue. So glad you got them!!

AKsilvereagle is likely right, the lights were dimmer in his area.

A friend was overnight camping (with his dog team and tent) between Two Rivers and Circle on Friday night and captured only the dimmest of aurora threads in the sky. And he is a good photographer. Even so, not much in that area.

Yet, the highway out to Circle is where I saw the most amazing display of northern lights one February.

What time were you looking? Often they will peak around local midnight, which in your case is 2:50am, though often they can be seen as soon as it gets dark enough.

Absolutely no northern lights in my area last night (Friday-Saturday) were visible.

Nice! Thanks.

profdant139 wrote:
Wow!! Judging by how sharp the stars are in the background, I am guessing that this exposure was at 10 seconds or so -- and judging by the lack of electronic noise, I am guessing an ISO of less than 1600 -- maybe 800? And the trees in the foreground are in perfect focus, so an f stop of at least 4?

How do you get these amazing shots? And isn't that Cassiopeia in the top right, behind the top of the aurora?

With my Canon 7D with the 10-22mm wide angle lens on it, I prefer:

6 or 8 second exposure, to keep the stars sharp. More time than that and their movement blurs the crispness too much for my liking. Last night was a 6 second night because the moon was so bright.

Last night I was shooting at ISO 1250. On a dark night, might bump that to 1600. Any higher there is too much "noise" for my liking but on really dark nights I might take it to 2000.

f/3.5 - completely open. Different lenses might not have the same aperture ability.

Good hardy tripod that can pivot the camera in every direction and that functions well at -40 even. Then 2-second delay on the shutter, so there is no shake. I have a remote shutter but don't use it as it is fussy in the cold.

Some more from last night, just after midnight

Wow!! Judging by how sharp the stars are in the background, I am guessing that this exposure was at 10 seconds or so -- and judging by the lack of electronic noise, I am guessing an ISO of less than 1600 -- maybe 800? And the trees in the foreground are in perfect focus, so an f stop of at least 4?

How do you get these amazing shots? And isn't that Cassiopeia in the top right, behind the top of the aurora?

The bright moon was to the right in this image, thus that side is brighter...

Note to self, put on boots (not your slippers) and warmer gloves when outside photographing aurora at -5C (23F). Stay tuned...need to warm my fingers a bit to work the keyboard!