Nuolja Star Trails
Nuolja Star Trails
After a 35-minute ride on a chairlift in the dark, I arrived at the Aurora Sky Station, 1000 meters above sea level near the top of the mountain Nuolja. Below stretched out a panoramic view of the lake Torneträsk, the lights from Abisko village, and other peaks of the Scandinavian Mountains. The weather was ideal. Even though temperatures were at the lower limit in which the lift is allowed to operate, the skies were clear and the wind was calm. Unfortunately the aurora was calm as well. The northern lights danced a little on the ride up, then faded to a weak glow barely perceptible for the rest of the night. But I tried to make the most of my time up here by shooting this startrail image. I processed it in a way to fade the trails into the background while bringing out the colors of the faint green aurora band. Even though my camera was pointed due north, it was not possible to include the North Star in the shot, at least not without shooting vertically. In Arctic latitudes the North Celestial Pole is too high up in the sky.
- Copyright
- Kevin Palmer
- Image Size
- 6016x4016 / 14.0MB
- Keywords
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2019, Abisko, Arctic, Aurora Sky Station, Europe, March, Nuolja, Scandinavia, Scandinavian Mountains, Sweden, Torntrask, astronomy, astrophotography, aurora, aurora borealis, clear, cold, dark, faint, frigid, ice, icy, kevin palmer, night, nikon d750, northern lights, sigma 14mm f1.8, sky, snow, snowy, space, stacked, star trails, starry, stars, summit, winter