Astronomy, Photography and Weather

General Category => Astronomy & Space => Topic started by: JohnC on February 27, 2011, 05:18:00 pm



Title: Aberdeen Aurora
Post by: JohnC on February 27, 2011, 05:18:00 pm
The photographer is 62 year old Jim Henderson from rural Aberdeen who has been photographing the Aurora for  20 years capturing 350 displays and all taken from near his home in Grampian,The Highlands.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1360602/Northern-Lights-captured-skies-Aberdeen-Awe-inspiring-Aurora-Borealis.html

Some more of his here , along with others  http://www.smeter.net/aurora/photo-index.php

 


Title: Re: Aberdeen Aurora
Post by: markt on February 27, 2011, 08:21:19 pm
That's a great link with some great images in John!  Thanks for sharing! :)

This may be my imagination or just speculation but I have to say in my experience images of aurora taken from the UK generally seem to have a redder component to them than those taken from more northerly latitudes? - now I know different colours of the aurora are associated with different molecules emitting different colours of light at different altitudes http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/211.fall2000.web.projects/Christina%20Shaw/AuroraColors.html - Could it be from the UK it is easier for us to see the reds from the angle we are looking from, compared to say Iceland where such reds would generally be buried amongst the bright greens?  I also wonder how many red auroras have been missed in urban Britain as their glow blends in with the similar coloured orange from the dreaded sodium streetlights?


Title: Re: Aberdeen Aurora
Post by: JohnC on February 28, 2011, 10:09:01 am
From what I've read,Mark,it's all about altitude rather than latitude apart from where you will see few  and none. This link  with it's white diagram shows that red is produced at high altitudes  up in the ionosphere above 300 Km (180 miles) where oxygen is the most common atom. http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/difcolors.html