Kevin Palmer

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  • 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.
    Nuolja Star Trails
  • This night was a rare one. The weather was completely clear with no winds, the moon had set, and the temperature was even in the positives. Conditions were perfect for stargazing, and I had to take advantage of it. The dead silence in these grassy hills outside of Buffalo was only interrupted by the occasional howl of a coyote. I pointed my camera north and took pictures for 90 minutes, which I combined into this star trail image. It shows the stars apparent motion caused by the Earth's rotation. Each star in the northern sky takes 24 hours (23:56 to be precise) to make a complete revolution in a counterclockwise direction. The height of the North Star (also known as Polaris) is always equal to the latitude - 44° in this case. Any star less than 44° away from Polaris is circumpolar, which means it never goes below the horizon. The red at the bottom of the picture was a very dim appearance of the aurora. I couldn't see it with my eyes.
    Revolutions
  • A lone pine tree on the edge of Sibley Lake points to the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) constellation above. The 2 stars on the end point to Polaris, the North Star on the left. All night long the Big Dipper will rotate counterclockwise while the North Star remains stationary. I added diffraction spikes to these 8 stars to make them stand out more.
    The Pointer
  • After seeing only about 1 hour of clear skies over 5 nights, I was determined to catch a good aurora display on my last night in Iceland. The southern coast was showing the best weather forecast. So that is where I went, camping in the shadow of the glacier-capped Eyjafjallajökull volcano which was lit up by the moonlight. This is the same volcano that erupted 7 years ago with the giant ash cloud causing the biggest disruption to air travel since WWII. As soon as it got dark the northern lights came out and stayed the entire night. Compared to lower latitudes, the aurora up here is brighter and moves and changes so much faster. It will often appear anywhere in the sky, not just limited to the north.
    Aurora Gap
  • After seeing only about 1 hour of clear skies over 5 nights, I was determined to catch a good aurora display on my last night in Iceland. The southern coast was showing the best weather forecast. So that is where I went, camping in the shadow of the glacier-capped Eyjafjallajökull volcano which was lit up by the moonlight. This is the same volcano that erupted 7 years ago with the giant ash cloud causing the biggest disruption to air travel since WWII. As soon as it got dark the northern lights came out and stayed the entire night. Compared to lower latitudes, the aurora up here is brighter and moves and changes so much faster. It will often appear anywhere in the sky, not just limited to the north. The aurora transformed into all kinds of interesting shapes, to me this shot looked like a surfing brontosaurus.
    Surfing Brontosaurus
  • While camping at Castle Gardens, I captured the stars for 2 hours to put together into this startrail image. A campfire cast a warm glow on the bluffs and hoodoos above.
    Castle Aglow
  • Stars appear to rotate above this abandoned barn in 3 hours time. In reality it is the stars that are stationary and the earth that is rotating. In 23 hours and 56 minutes, the stars make one counterclockwise rotation of 360 degrees. This 4 minute difference is what causes the stars to change position from night to night, and the constellations to change from season to season. Earth's northern axis happens to be pointed at Polaris, or the North Star. It hardly moves at all in the course of a night. For thousands of years people have been using Polaris to navigate. It not only tells you which way is north, but it also tells you your latitude. In this case the North Star was 40 degrees above the horizon. Those in the southern hemisphere do not have such a star to guide them.<br />
I found this old barn in Jim Edgar State Park a couple nights ago.
    Dark Barn Startrail
  • A Geminid meteor burns up just below Polaris in Big Cypress National Preserve. I have never seen the North Star so low before since I have never been this far south.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 12/14/2014
    Meteor Under Polaris
  • Darkness could not come soon enough. Reports of the northern lights were coming in from across the eastern US. Standing on a cliff nearly 1,000 feet above Meadowlark Lake, this was a spot I’d been wanting to spend the night for a long time. The highest peaks of the Bighorn Mountains stood to the north, including Cloud Peak dead center. Aurora chasing mostly involves a whole lot of waiting. Waiting for the right space weather forecast, clear skies, moon phase, and for the sun to go down. Even when conditions seem perfect the aurora can come and go at the drop of a hat. When darkness arrived, so did the clouds, along with a brief rain shower. When the clouds faded, so did the northern lights. But finally just before 1AM the glow returned. A substorm sent red and purple pillars halfway to the North Star, reflected in the water far below. It did not last long before the moon rose and drowned out the lights. Even though the display wasn’t as good as it could have been, moments like this are always worth staying up for.
    Midnight at Meadowlark
  • At 1AM the aurora spread out and filled almost the entire sky above southern Iceland, while the moon illuminated the landscape.
    Green Skies at Night
  • Hunting for the aurora from the mid-latitudes can be a frustrating endeavor. For every night that I've clearly seen the northern lights, there are 2 more where I've gone out only to see the aurora quickly fade or clouds overtake the sky. But perfect nights like this one make it all worth it. After NOAA issued a geomagnetic storm warning, I headed for the Bighorn Mountains. The aurora was obvious as soon as I stepped out of my car. But it was just a green glow without any structure or movement. At 12:30AM, the lights began to grow brighter. Pillars topped with purple and red suddenly rose up and moved rapidly back and forth. This is called a substorm. Charged particles in the solar wind causes pressure to build up against Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field will suddenly 'snap' and the release of energy makes the aurora intensify. Substorms are unpredictable and often last only minutes. In this frame I caught a Lyrid meteor burning up above Steamboat Point.
    Dawn of the North
  • Hooting owls cut through the frosty air. A quiet gurgling sound came from the open water on the Tongue River. Sudden snaps, cracks, and pops disturbed the stillness as river ice shifted. After staring at nothing for an hour, finally my eyes could see what my camera had already detected: a noticeable glow to the north. It could be mistaken for light pollution, except there were no cities in that direction. Slowly the glow increased in brightness before it broke out into a substorm. Pillars rose up from the horizon and drifted from right to left. In the past I’ve not had much success aurora hunting in the middle of winter. But there’s a first time for everything.
    Long January Night
  • The last climbers repelled down the south face of Devils Tower soon after twilight faded. First Perseus rose to the northeast, followed by Arcturus, the 4th brightest star in the sky. Satellites slowly came and went while meteors vaporized at a much faster speed. The aurora painted its colors on an invisible canvas,  undetectable to my eye for the most part. One glow soon replaced another when the crescent moon rose at midnight. In many previous visits I’ve scouted all over the national monument looking for the best vantage points. This patch of prairie that I marked on my map is barely within the park boundary. Dodging deadfall, making my way across a steep slope and up and over a cliff is hard enough during the day, doubly so at night. I kept waiting for a big aurora display to give me a reason to come back here. That never happened, despite the forecast. But even an ordinary night is worth experiencing at an extraordinary place like this. Those who only visit Devils Tower during the day miss out on half the scenery.
    More Than a Meteor
  • This was my favorite image of the corona during the solar eclipse. The effects of the magnetic field can be clearly seen, with the coronal streamers aligned to the north and south poles of the sun. The star Regulus is also visible on the lower left.
    Solar Corona
  • For centuries a piece of rock about an inch in diameter has been speeding through space at 158,000 mph. It’s part of a dusty trail shed by the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Every year around November 18th Earth encounters this comet debris in what’s known as the Leonid meteor shower. At 2:18AM this particular meteoroid was vaporized by Earth’s atmosphere in a brilliant flash of light. For 20-30 minutes afterwards a glowing vapor trail hung in the sky, twisting and turning before dispersing. Beneath Medicine Mountain in the Bighorns, the weather was perfect for stargazing this time of year. Most years the Leonids are nothing special, but they have a history. Approximately every 33 years, a denser stream of debris causes meteor rates to skyrocket. Historical accounts describe hundreds of thousands of falling stars filling the entire sky in a meteor storm. Though numbers were low this year, sometimes it only takes one to make your night.
    Leonid Meteor
  • Having already captured the aurora from most of the highway overlooks in the Bighorn Mountains, Sibley Lake was my destination. I didn't know what I'd find when I got there. Snow still blocked part of the road, so I walked the rest of the way to the shoreline. Most of the ice was gone, leaving a near-perfect mirror in its place. In the hour that I sat there, newly formed ice slowly spread across this cove. While the creek gurgled and owls hooted, meteors periodically shot between the stars.
    Sibley Lake Aurora
  • At the end of July I had the chance to shoot the most detailed milky way nightscape photo I've ever taken. Ever since making a similar photo in Utah, I've wanted to repeat it, but finding the right location, the right weather, at the right time isn't easy. After a stunning sunset over Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, the clouds cleared out and the conditions began to come together. This image is a combination of 3 separate pictures, totaling nearly 1 hour of exposure time. First I placed my tripod on the edge of the canyon, then aligned my star tracking mount on Polaris (the north star), and then shot two 18-minute exposures of the milky way. Then I turned the tracking mount off, and shot a similar exposure of just the canyon, and later stitched the 3 shots together. Without a tracking mount, I'm normally limited to 30-second exposures before the stars start to blur. In addition to the milky way, the planets Saturn and Mars, and traces of green airglow are also visible. The light pollution along the horizon is from the towns of Lovell and Powell. While I was shooting this, bats kept fluttering around my head, eating all the gnats gathered around the puddles after a recent rain.
    Celestial River
  • In January I went out to capture one of my favorite photogenic trees late at night. It sits by itself in a field near a small abandoned house. Cassiopeia, one of the most recognizable constellations, is like a celestial clock. In 23 hours and 56 minutes it will make one rotation around the North Star. But unlike a clock, it spins counterclockwise. When closest to the horizon the 5 brightest stars make the shape of a W, but when it's highest overhead it looks like an M. From anywhere above 35°N, Cassiopeia is circumpolar. That means the constellation neither rises nor sets, always staying above the horizon. In order to get a sharper picture I shot a 12-minute exposure of the foreground, and the tree branches didn't even move an inch. Windless nights are quite rare during winter in Wyoming.
    Night On the Homestead
  • Early in the morning the northern horizon glowed green. This was caused by a geomagnetic storm from a recurring coronal hole on the sun. A coronal hole is an opening in the outer atmosphere of the sun that allows the high-speed solar wind to escape, which triggers the aurora when it impacts Earth’s magnetic field. Since the sun rotates on it’s axis every 27 days, this can be predicted in advance. I saw the aurora from this coronal hole in September, but last month it was too cloudy. I was determined to see it again this weekend even if it meant staying up all night dodging clouds (aurora hunting is an addiction). The infrared satellite showed a gap in the clouds moving in at 2AM, so I made some coffee and found a dark spot on the Wyoming/Montana state line to watch and wait. It wasn’t the best display I've seen, but I’ll take what I can get during solar minimum, and the meteor was a nice bonus.
    Parkman Pond Aurora - 32
  • In mid-August I photographed the annual Perseid meteor shower. But this was no ordinary year, as there were twice as many meteors as normal. Beartooth Lake, at almost 9,000 feet in the Beartooth Mountains was the perfect place to watch from. I was worried about the weather, with thick clouds at sunset and a wildfire only 7 miles away. But it ended up being a beautiful night. The show got started at 1AM when the moon set, leaving the sky completely dark. While listening to every little sound around me (this is grizzly bear country) I counted 250 meteors in 4 hours. This was one of 93 that my camera captured over  Beartooth Butte. The radiant (Perseus) was to the upper right outside of the frame. As dawn approached, fog swirled around the glassy surface of the lake. Hand warmers strapped to my lens prevented the glass from fogging up. I don't know how cold it was, but I do know my water bottle froze and I was snowed on at the pass earlier in the evening.
    Green to Red
  • I caught this lucky meteor falling through the aurora at 1:30AM. The northern lights were so dim that I could barely notice them with my eyes, but the camera picked up more of the colors.
    Pillars and Meteor
  • The aurora was dead when it first became dark. But then a very faint display of red pillars rose up. At the same time I caught this lucky Orionid meteor.
    Flat Lake Aurora
  • The northern lights dance above Deadman's Basin Reservoir while a fireball meteor flies through the sky.
    Aurora and Fireball
  • Half-awake at 3AM I wandered the banks of the Tongue River in southern Montana. Fog drifted across the water like it was alive, slowing down, speeding up, and stopping. Every tree and bush shifted to an unfamiliar shape. Each breath I took added to the moisture in the air. All evening long the 75% moon hid the secrets of the night sky. Faint colors and dim stars were all drowned out by the bright, inescapable light source. But when the moon set and the fog appeared, it was a different world. The aurora glowed gently to the north while stars I haven’t seen in half a year rose to the east. Though Orion is considered a winter constellation, it first rises in the fall. The early morning hours essentially show a preview of the stars for the following season. Water vapor produced halos around the brighter stars Betelgeuse and Rigel, Castor and Pollux, enhancing their colors. At one point I walked too far into a wall of fog and could see nothing at all. When I woke up in my tent hours later, aside from the heavy dew everywhere, it was like the fog was never even there.
    Halos of Orion
  • Half-awake at 3AM I wandered the banks of the Tongue River in southern Montana. Fog drifted across the water like it was alive, slowing down, speeding up, and stopping. Every tree and bush shifted to an unfamiliar shape. Each breath I took added to the moisture in the air. All evening long the 75% moon hid the secrets of the night sky. Faint colors and dim stars were all drowned out by the bright, inescapable light source. But when the moon set and the fog appeared, it was a different world. The aurora glowed gently to the north while stars I haven’t seen in half a year rose to the east.
    River of Fog
  • For the 2nd night in a row, there was an active display of the northern lights in Abisko, Sweden. Starting off as a dull glow in the north after sunset, it quickly exploded with bright green spiral swirls filling the entire sky. Here above the Arctic Circle the aurora is ever present, encircling the Earth's poles in a zone called the auroral oval. Even during solar minimum when solar activity is quiet, the northern lights are visible on almost any clear night. And Abisko sees more clear nights than surrounding areas because the mountains to the west create a rain shadow effect. Visible beyond the forest of short birch trees, is Torneträsk, Sweden's 6th largest, and 2nd deepest lake.
    Green Cyclone
  • On this evening I went out for the sunset but stayed for the lightning. This is a spot close to home that I discovered last month. It's a great place to hike except for the abundance of ticks. We're at the time of year where spring progresses very quickly. Many trees seem to leaf-out almost overnight and wildflowers bloom out of nowhere. This hillside was covered in lupine, which is one of the most widespread wildflowers in North America. After the warmest day of the year, the air still felt very summer-like once the sun went down. I watched this thunderstorm go up to the east, and just waited for the first bolts of lightning to flash into the blue twilight sky. Even though it was almost 70 miles away, it was clearly visible.
    Lupine Lightning
  • After seeing only about 1 hour of clear skies over 5 nights, I was determined to catch a good aurora display on my last night in Iceland. The southern coast was showing the best weather forecast. So that is where I went, camping in the shadow of the glacier-capped Eyjafjallajökull volcano which was lit up by the moonlight. This is the same volcano that erupted 7 years ago with the giant ash cloud causing the biggest disruption to air travel since WWII. As soon as it got dark the northern lights came out and stayed the entire night. Compared to lower latitudes, the aurora up here is brighter and moves and changes so much faster. It will often appear anywhere in the sky, not just limited to the north.
    Volcanic Green
  • I combined some of the last aurora images I took before dawn into this startrail. I stacked the pictures in Starstax using comet mode and in reverse order so the stars seem to be rotating clockwise instead of counterclockwise. This allowed the bright purple pillar to show through more easily.
    Rotational Velocity
  • This image shows the stars apparent motion caused by the rotation of the earth. I setup my camera point at my tent while I camped in Anza Borrego.
    Anza Borrego Night
  • It was a dark night deep in the boreal forest, on the edge of the Arctic. Two rivers flowed, one of water, and one of light. While sitting on bedrock of the Canadian Shield, sudden chills enveloped me, caused by a misty fog that I could not see. As a rule before I go on a night hike I try to scout during the day first and record a GPS track to follow later. This was especially important in the Northwest Territories where trails are often poorly marked. After checking out 2 waterfalls I preferred this one. Lower than normal water levels made it possible to stand in the middle of the Cameron River. The only problem was the view faced east. But at this high latitude directions don't matter as much and the northern lights are not always north. All summer long wildfire smoke has dimmed the sun and blotted out the stars, which continued while I was there. But the sky did clear at times unexpectedly. The biggest challenge was getting these clear periods to align with the aurora activity. But camping out nearby ensured I was ready and wouldn’t miss anything.
    River of Water and Light
  • The sun had not even been down an hour yet when the first green curtains overspread the blue twilight sky. Why am I not on the summit already? As I hoofed it up a mountain in Greenland, I barely needed my headlamp as the lights above illuminated my way. Route finding can be tricky at night, but I had scouted out this peak the previous day so I knew where to go. Finally I reached the top, and all body heat generated from the strenuous climb was quickly stolen by the icy wind. Below stretched out the Nuuk Fjord, 2nd longest fjord system in the world. Rising nearly 4,000 feet above the sea is Sermitsiaq, the iconic island peak which dominates the skyline of Greenland's capital city. While Mars cast its reflection across the water, ribbons of green, purple, and red shimmered overhead. Oddly the northern lights seemed to prefer every part of the sky except north. For hours the show continued, in waves of varying intensity. It was a night I'll never forget.
    Nuuk Fjord Aurora
  • All night long lightning flashed to the north over Steamboat Point in the Bighorn Mountains. Then at 2:30AM Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE rose above the horizon. Finally as the first light of dawn came, noctilucent clouds appeared. It was the brightest display I've ever seen. Seeing all these things at the same time made it a night to remember.
    A Night to Remember
  • There are some things that just don't happen every day. One of the brightest comets in decades is swinging past Earth this month. As I brainstormed to figure out where to capture it, Steamboat Point seemed like an obvious choice. Anyone who has driven Highway 14 would recognize this iconic peak of the Bighorn Mountains. It gets its name because of the massive rock face that sticks into the air like the prow of a steamboat. Even though storms were around in the evening, I was not expecting them to last. But lightning flashed to the north for the entire night. The red color is an effect caused by viewing from a long distance through the thicker atmosphere. At 2:30AM, the comet rose above the northeast horizon, tail-first. A comet's tail always points away from the Sun. The 67% moon off to the right lit up the mountain, while shadows added depth to the scene. Soon after this, noctilucent clouds joined the show, but that's for another post. By the time the sun rose my memory card had 1400 new images. It was a night very much worth losing sleep over.
    Worth Losing Sleep Over
  • In early January is the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. Meteor rates weren't nearly as prolific as the Geminids of December. But I still wanted to photograph it since the moon phase was favorable and few pictures of this astronomical event exist. With decent weather in the forecast, I climbed to the top of a 9,477' mountain and spent the night there. The expansive views to the north included Meadowlark Lake, the tallest peaks of the Bighorns, and the High Park meadow. After chasing a mouse out of my backpack I set my camera to take pictures for most of the night. The shower seemed to be most active between about 10PM and midnight. That's when my camera captured these 8 meteors, although 3 of them were halfway out of the frame. I stitched together a few images for the bottom half of the picture, this allowed me to correct the distortion in the trees.
    8 Quadrantid Meteors
  • I found this area while wondering the backroads north of Sheridan at night. The aurora I had tried to capture was a bust, but when I left the milky way was perfectly placed above these bluffs. Mars and Saturn were close together after their conjunction last week. I lit up the formation with my headlamp from the side to add depth.
    Planetary Bluff
  • With both clear skies and a geomagnetic storm in the forecast, I headed north of the border to Saskatchewan. Grasslands National Park is a long ways from anywhere. During the day the landscape seems stark and desolate, especially after a very dry summer. But the real beauty of this park comes after sunset. It is one of the darkest places on the continent. With no sources of light pollution at all, the stars appear the same as they did to the Plains Indians hundreds of years ago. The aurora was already bright and colorful earlier in the evening. But at midnight after the moon set, the northern lights went insane. I've never seen such rapid motion before. If you could imagine a campfire with the flames rising upward and flickering on and off, that's what it looked like. Except instead of orange, it was green, and instead of it being confined to a fire ring, it filled the entire sky. I don't think any camera could fully capture it, it just has to be experienced.
    Two Tipis
  • For most of the night the northern lights glowed brightly to the north. But it was just a green band that didn't show much movement. Then at 2AM the sky exploded into color, with purple pillars reaching all the way up to the zenith. I've seen the northern lights dozens of times, but this was only the 3rd time I've seen them reach that high. Unfortunately 2AM is when I decided to change locations so I missed out on the best part of the show.
    Bursting With Color
  • In early August the aurora made an appearance and I was able to see it for the first time this year. The sun follows an 11 year cycle where the solar activity that causes the aurora (sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections) increases and decreases. As we head toward solar minimum predicted in 2019, the aurora will become increasingly rare in the mid-latitudes, but will continue to occur around the arctic. Last year I was able to witness the aurora 10 times, mostly from Illinois, but this year has been a lot different. This picture was taken from the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains above Dayton, Wyoming. It was a spot I scouted out in advance and knew it had a good view north. While I was taking pictures, a sharp gust of wind came up over the ridge. I held on to my tripod, but the wind blew my camping chair down the side of the mountain.
    Dayton Aurora
  • It was a historic, indescribable night, with auroras seen clear down to the Caribbean. A display of this intensity needed somewhere equally epic to watch it from. It felt wrong heading south instead of north to see the northern lights. But latitude did not matter at all. <br />
Just upstream of Alcova Reservoir in the middle of Wyoming is Fremont Canyon. The North Platte River rounds a horseshoe bend beneath towering walls. This spectacular overlook I found 4 years ago and waited until the right time to return. After hiking in, it was just like I remembered it. The night began with a widespread, bright yet diffuse glow. In every part of the sky, it was like the light of a full moon, and I hardly needed my headlamp to see. <br />
But it wasn't until around midnight when the sky really went crazy. Within a matter of seconds pillars soared to the zenith. Colors that before only my camera could see were suddenly visible to my eyes. Overhead a spectacular pulsing, shimmering corona formed with deep red, purple, pink, and green rays. All was reflected in the calm water far below. Myself, and the millions of others who watched won't ever forget this night.
    Cliffside Aurora
  • Reports were coming in from across Europe on Sunday. The northern lights were sighted far to the south in places like Italy and Turkey for the first time in 20 years. Unfortunately the timing of the geomagnetic storm was all wrong for North America. Even with Daylight Saving Time ending, darkness could not come soon enough. By nightfall in Wyoming the magnetic field of the solar wind had flipped northward, which cancels out the aurora. But conditions can change quickly so I went out somewhere dark anyway. Lingering energy in Earth’s magnetic field caused a rare SAR (stable auroral red) arc to glow overhead. This was caught on camera even in the southern US, though it was largely invisible to the eye. At 9pm the solar wind briefly became favorable again. Watermelon-colored aurora pillars quickly rose up into the northern sky.
    Sudden Red
  • There is a lot happening at the local pond at 2AM. This image shows the stars apparent movement in 45 minutes time. The aurora glowed to the north in hues of red and green. Meteors burned up in the atmosphere. Satellites and airplanes  flew past. It was far from quiet with flapping waterfowl, croaking frogs, and a splashing beaver. Startrail reflections are like mini seismographs, recording ripples in the water. With no wind, all the disturbances are from the beaver splashing.
    Beaver Pond Startrails
  • After 3 straight nights of seeing the aurora, I thought the show was over. When it first got dark, there was nothing to the north. But before going to sleep I checked again and there were red and green pillars dancing. Being at 7400' certainly helped with the view, I'm sure it wasn't this visible down below.
    Monumental Aurora
  • Kirby is an abandoned ghost town in southeast Montana. I'm not exactly sure what this building used to be, possibly a post office. I want to come here some night to shoot the aurora since it faces north, but haven't had any opportunities recently. I happened to be driving by at midnight, so I stopped for a few pictures. The tall grass was still soaked from earlier storms.
    Kirby Midnight
  • After seeing only about 1 hour of clear skies over 5 nights, I was determined to catch a good aurora display on my last night in Iceland. The southern coast was showing the best weather forecast. So that is where I went, camping in the shadow of the glacier-capped Eyjafjallajökull volcano which was lit up by the moonlight. This is the same volcano that erupted 7 years ago with the giant ash cloud causing the biggest disruption to air travel since WWII. As soon as it got dark the northern lights came out and stayed the entire night. Compared to lower latitudes, the aurora up here is brighter and moves and changes so much faster. It will often appear anywhere in the sky, not just limited to the north.
    Sleeping Giant
  • The milky way glows above the Little Missouri River, lined with golden cottonwood trees. Looking south, the skies were very dark here in the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. But there was a lot of light pollution present to the north from natural gas flaring in the Bakken oil field. This was taken on the last day of September.
    Theodore Roosevelt Milky Way
  • The milky way looked stunning at Lily Lake, Idaho. The stars were extra clear because there was no light pollution at all, the weather was perfect, the moon was out of the way, and this was at a higher elevation. The purple spot at the top is known as the North America nebula. The 3 brightest stars in this picture form the summer triangle.
    Lily Lake Milky Way
  • Northern lights dance in the north and the zodiacal light shines in the east. This view was seen from the 6700 foot summit of Cougar Peak in Montana. This sky was untouched by light pollution, allowing the fainter stars and aurora to be visible. This 4 shot panorama covers a large portion of the sky.
    Aurora and Zodiacal Light
  • Pairs of eyes stared back at me as I made my way through the forest at 3AM. Three elk dashed away along the unmarked path to Shoshoni Point. This was the one Grand Canyon overlook I could find with a view to the southeast. The south rim is not the ideal place to photograph the milky way because it's located in the southern sky while most of the viewpoints look north. Once I got to the edge the galaxy was shining brilliantly above, but below it was a black abyss. Neither my eyes or my camera could see any detail in the canyon, it was just too dark. But after shooting the milky way I left my camera in position and waited for morning twilight to brighten the sky. This helped to fill in the shadows and I combined the images later. The majority of the canyon is out of the frame to the left. Someday I'll have to return to the north rim for a better view when it's not closed. Three planets are visible in this image if you know where to look.
    Grand Canyon Milky Way
  • When I got to Lake DeSmet for a night of stargazing, the aurora was glowing a deep red color. I ran to this point of the lake so I could look north and capture the reflection.
    Lake DeSmet Aurora
  • Soon after the aurora intensified, fog settled in to the frozen Fremont Lake. It felt like I was in a dream as halos surrounded Venus and the moon to the west while intense pinks and reds glowed to the north.
    In a Dream
  • Cloud Cap Summit on the north side of Mount Hood was my last stop on my 10 day road trip through the Pacific Northwest. The skies up here at 6,000 feet were exceptionally clear. The thick smoke that had been present for my whole trip finally settled into the valleys. After sunset the moonlight looked amazing on the glaciers. Jupiter was nearly touching the top of the mountain.
    Twilight On Mount Hood
  • For most of the night the northern lights glowed brightly to the north. But it was just a green band that didn't show much movement. Then at 2AM the sky exploded into color, with purple pillars reaching all the way up to the zenith. I've seen the northern lights dozens of times, but this was only the 3rd time I've seen them reach that high. Unfortunately 2AM is when I decided to change locations so I missed out on the best part of the show.
    Subsiding Substorm
  • While the aurora was out, the International Space Station passed by to the north. The station orbits 250 miles above the earth at 17,000 MPH and circles the earth every 90 minutes.
    17,000 MPH
  • Every tidal cycle brought something different. An endless stream of icebergs floated down the fjord, stranding themselves in this small bay when the tide turned.  Earlier that morning there were so many pieces of ice that I couldn’t even walk across this beach. But by nightfall most were carried away and only a few remained. It was my last night in Nuuk and the forecast called for 80% clouds. I just had to wait for that 20% gap. Geomagnetic activity wasn’t particularly high either, but this far north it doesn’t take much. Greenland is located under the auroral oval, where shows like this may happen any time the sky is clear and dark enough. When fringes of purple or pink line the swirls of aurora, it’s often associated with bright, rapid movement. A still image doesn't even begin to show all that's happening in the sky. Rays of light pulse inward from every direction, converging overhead at the zenith. It’s mesmerizing to watch and hard to look away from, though part of me wished I had a second camera with me to capture it all.
    Energetic Swirls
  • All was quiet at 3AM in the pleasantly cool air. It felt like I was the only one awake. I was at my ‘lazy’ aurora watching spot, where I go when I don’t feel like driving far. For hours, a southward-oriented solar wind stream had been pouring energy into Earth's magnetic field. It's these conditions that eventually lead to a geomagnetic storm. Moonlight, as well as smoke from a new forest fire were conspiring to hide the glow. But after waiting for a bit the northern sky finally broke out into pillars. The colors could not be seen with the eye but the greens, reds, and purples showed up well on camera. Just when I was about to leave I heard the train horn. The crossing gate went down and soon I could feel the rumble and wind as the train cars rushed past me. I’ve never captured a moving train at night, but this was the perfect time to try. The empty train was heading north to pick up a load of coal from the mines. It turns out I wasn’t the only one awake.
    Northbound Train
  • With both clear skies and a geomagnetic storm in the forecast, I headed north of the border to Saskatchewan. Grasslands National Park is a long ways from anywhere. During the day the landscape seems stark and desolate, especially after a very dry summer. But the real beauty of this park comes after sunset. It is one of the darkest places on the continent. With no sources of light pollution at all, the stars appear the same as they did to the Plains Indians hundreds of years ago. The aurora was already bright and colorful earlier in the evening. But at midnight after the moon set, the northern lights went insane. I've never seen such rapid motion before. If you could imagine a campfire with the flames rising upward and flickering on and off, that's what it looked like. Except instead of orange, it was green, and instead of it being confined to a fire ring, it filled the entire sky. I don't think any camera could fully capture it, it just has to be experienced.
    Tipi Aurora
  • It's fascinating watching the aurora tangle itself like a rope straight above my head. But looking up so much sometimes leads to a sore neck.
    Tangled Aurora
  • The aurora glows red and green above Bear Butte, South Dakota, on a cold winter night.
    Bear Butte Prairie Aurora
  • If you have never seen the aurora, you should definitely make it a goal. This was a once in a lifetime show for me as I have never seen a better geomagnetic storm. I was only in Wisconsin but it felt like I was in Alaska. The aurora was pulsating, moving rapidly and it covered much of the sky. Most of my pictures were taken with a 10mm lens which tells you just how much of the sky was filled with color. This was taken from the top of Blue Mound, which is the highest point in southern Wisconsin.
    Rising Intensity
  • If you have never seen the aurora, you should definitely make it a goal. This was a once in a lifetime show for me as I have never seen a better geomagnetic storm. I was only in Wisconsin but it felt like I was in Alaska. The aurora was pulsating, moving rapidly and it covered much of the sky. Most of my pictures were taken with a 10mm lens which tells you just how much of the sky was filled with color. This was taken from the top of Blue Mound, which is the highest point in southern Wisconsin.
    Once in a Lifetime
  • A red and green aurora glows above the boreal forest of northern Canada in the fall.
    Night In the Boreal Forest
  • Before midnight I climbed up to a cliff to get closer to Devils Tower. Even though the aurora was weaker now, it was still a phenomenal view.
    Minutes to Midnight
  • I wasn't really expecting the northern lights to be this active. It was a beautiful night for stargazing, and I was only planning to shoot the milky way, but I never got to that. A slight breeze disturbed the surface of the lake most of the night. But at 3AM it became perfectly calm and the surface of Lake DeSmet looked like glass. A long exposure from a camera always picks up more colors in the aurora than the human eye can see. Oftentimes only the color green is visible. But the purple pillar on the right was very noticeable and it hardly moved at all.
    Purple Pillar
  • Brockway Aurora
  • A giant SAR (sub auroral red) arc appears beside the setting moon over Fremont Canyon.
    Moon and SAR Arc
  • The haunting call of the loon echoed across Madeline Lake, while bright aurora swirls were reflected in the water.
    While the Loon Echoes
  • The time was after 11PM, yet still the light of sunset lingered in the northwestern sky. It gets dark quite late here in Montana in the middle of summer. This peak has been on my radar to climb for quite awhile. Like a spine, the long and narrow Bridger Range is situated in the middle of the state. The 9,665’ Sacagawea Peak, named after the famed guide of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is the apex of the mountain range. Views stretched far and wide in every direction and were some of the best of any peak I’ve stood on. After sundown the lights of Bozeman and smaller towns came on. Then Comet NEOWISE slowly appeared through the deep blue twilight sky. Just a few minutes makes a big difference in visibility because while the coma is bright, the tail of the comet is faint even though it’s huge. After this more clouds moved in along with a couple flashes of lightning. It was time to leave, but I was thankful for the short window of opportunity I had. Descending the steep trail by headlamp was no small task. I made note of the tricky parts on my way up and was extra careful in the dark, trying not to butt heads with any mountain goats.
    Sacagawea Comet
  • Over Labor Day weekend the Earth's magnetic field was battered by a solar wind stream from a coronal hole on the sun, which reached speeds of up to 800km a second. This led to the aurora dipping down to lower latitudes and I was able to catch it 4 nights in a row. I'm always in search of new north-facing viewpoints for picture opportunities. This night I spent at the top of the Judith Mountains in central Montana. Montana always has a better shot at seeing the aurora and being at a high elevation helped even more. The views reached far and wide out over the plains with more mountain ranges than I could count. As it got dark flashes of lightning were visible 250 miles away in Saskatchewan which I didn't even know was possible. The aurora danced all night long, preceded by a fiery sunset and followed by a stormy sunrise. It couldn't have been a more colorful stay on this mountaintop.
    Pillars Rising Above
  • On my last night in Alaska I went to Chena Lake for a couple hours. I'm sure the aurora would have kept getting better, but I had to leave early since I'd be waking up at 4AM to catch my flight.
    Chena Birches Aurora
  • I was trying to capture meteors, but my camera caught a lot more satellites instead.
    3:38 Flare
  • Pillars of Red
  • March has been a very active month for geomagnetic activity. But unfortunately it has also been a very cloudy month where I live. On Monday night I was finally able to catch a glimpse of the aurora while dodging clouds near Decker, Montana. The northern lights were rather weak but I was still glad to have seen them.
    Decker Aurora
  • The deep blue colors of twilight overtake the sky as dawn approaches at Beartooth Lake.
    Beartooth Twilight
  • After the northern lights began to fade and the clouds cleared, a strange wave pattern became visible in the sky. This is airglow, a chemical reaction that occurs at the same altitude as the aurora, but it's a separate process. This night was the only time I've ever seen it with the naked eye. I'm pretty sure it was caused by gravity waves from powerful severe thunderstorms that impacted Illinois earlier in the evening.
    Gravity Waves
  • An intense red aurora appears above the horseshoe bend of Fremont Canyon, Wyoming.
    Horseshoe Red Aurora
  • Early Twilight Substorm
  • Sitting isolated on the prairie of far northern Montana is a former US Air Force base. At the height of the Cold War it was home to 7,000 residents. But since being decommissioned in 1976, almost every house has sat empty and neglected. Most ghost towns consist of a handful of old buildings. But this one is different because the houses are modern enough to belong in just about any town. And there are hundreds of dilapidated homes lining street after street. The harsh climate has taken its toll on these structures. Like something out of a movie set, it was a spooky place to wander around at midnight. That was when the northern lights were at their brightest. Between passing clouds deep reds and greens shined through.
    Abandoned House Aurora
  • Halfway up Bear Butte Mountain, a bright green aurora fills the sky over the surrounding prairie.
    Bear Butte Cliff Aurora
  • An extremely rare aurora corona is seen over a red rock formation at Devils Tower. This view was looking south.
    Red Rock Corona
  • From the first time I glimpsed Devils Tower 7 years ago I’ve been dreaming of this picture. Countless visits to this iconic monolith were all badly timed for catching the aurora. But since then I’ve explored almost every acre of the park to figure out exactly where to go when the moment was right. That right moment happened on April 23rd. Two days earlier the sun hurled a massive explosion directly towards Earth at more than a million mph. When it arrived it caused the strongest geomagnetic storm since 2005. My widest lens, which covers a field of view of 115°, was not nearly wide enough. The entire sky pulsed in green waves like lightning. The raw intensity was humbling. I could see the ground by the light of the aurora alone. Since the ice recently melted, I headed for the Belle Fourche River. The water level on the shallow waterway was high enough to provide a perfect reflection. Because it's still the off-season, the park was much quieter with less stray light compared to the summer. I don’t know how many hours of sleep I’ve lost through the years chasing this shot. But it all feels worth it now.
    Monumental Mirror
  • It was half past midnight on the last day of August. A solar wind stream blowing at 700 km a second reached Earth a little sooner than predicted. The northern lights had been dancing on and off for the past few hours. But then I noticed a strange pattern, which was dim enough that I wasn’t sure it was really there. A long exposure revealed greater detail and color. The picket fence pattern is related to a rare, recently classified type of aurora called STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.) STEVE most often appears as a bright, pinkish ribbon of light found away from the main band of aurora. STEVE may or may not be accompanied by this green picket fence, but on this night the brighter streak of light was absent. It was my first time seeing it this far south in Wyoming. Lake DeSmet provided a beautiful blurred reflection when the wind let up. This night was the first of 4 in a row that I’d capture the aurora. The weeks surrounding the spring and fall equinoxes tend to be the most favorable for geomagnetic storm conditions. But around here the weather tends to be a lot clearer in the early fall, which is why I have more aurora sightings in September than in March.
    Emerald Waters
  • A moonlit Devils Tower is reflected in the Belle Fourche River near the campground.
    Belle Fourche Reflection
  • The aurora borealis caused red and green pillars to fill the northern sky above the Bighorn Mountains.
    Christmas Colored Sky
  • Windy Aurora
  • By 2AM most visitors had left the park. Coyotes quieted down as the temperature fell into the mid 20’s and frost appeared on the grass. Clouds were still keeping their distance. The moon had set hours ago. The northern lights had dimmed since their peak at 10pm. But the night was not over. In the southeast the core of the Milky Way galaxy was just peeking over the horizon. It formed a huge band that arced to the northeast, where it was drowned out by the gently pulsing green and red aurora. With fresh batteries in my headlamp, I climbed up to a cliff marked on my map. From this viewpoint I could capture the entire scene in a panorama, with Devils Tower in the middle. Below could be seen the meandering Belle Fourche River with the Bear Lodge Mountains beyond. The Milky Way first returned from its winter slumber a couple months ago. But I like to wait until this time of year to see it because it’s easier to stay up. These rare views are the reason I will always be a night owl.
    Aurora Tower and Galaxy
  • After midnight the sky once again exploded into a bright red aurora. This view is from Fremont Lake near Pinedale.
    Fremont Overlook Aurora
  • February started off with a geomagnetic storm on a mild winter night. At 1AM the northern sky briefly glowed green as seen from St Xavier, Montana. The Bighorn River provided a reflection; the current is fast enough here that it doesn't freeze over. I scouted out this location in the fall and knew it would be a great spot to camp out and wait for the aurora when the opportunity presented itself. A giant hole in the sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona) allowed the solar wind to escape and head towards Earth. Coronal holes rotate around the solar disk every 27 days, so they can be predicted in advance. When the high speed solar wind (up to 600 km/second) hits Earth’s magnetic field, charged particles wrap around the poles and the auroral oval expands towards the equator. This leads to the aurora being visible from mid-latitudes. But the exact timing, local weather, and other factors dictate where it can actually be seen.
    Bighorn River Aurora
  • At 4AM, I was ready to head home. The aurora had mostly faded away hours earlier. But then it came back. The crescent moon was gently lighting up the snow. This time, the colors were more of a deep purple and blue as twilight began to overtake the sky.
    4AM Aurora
  • If you have never seen the aurora, you should definitely make it a goal. This was a once in a lifetime show for me as I have never seen a better geomagnetic storm. I was only in Wisconsin but it felt like I was in Alaska. The aurora was pulsating, moving rapidly and it covered much of the sky. Most of my pictures were taken with a 10mm lens which tells you just how much of the sky was filled with color. This was taken from the top of Blue Mound, which is the highest point in southern Wisconsin.
    Full Spectrum
  • The milky way sets in the west shortly after sunset. This was taken from the top of a hill prairie in Jim Edgar State Park. It was a great place to watch a meteor shower.
    Hill Prairie Milky Way
  • The northern lights are reflected in the waters of Lake Superior as clouds move in. During a very cloudy week in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, there was only one night that was partially clear. After hiking 10 miles to a campsite on the lake, I waited for it to get dark. The aurora was initially visible as twilight ended, but then it faded away. After midnight it became brighter, and the colorful pillars rose up and drifted from left to right.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 10/1/14
    Lake Superior Aurora
  • Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park erupts under the light of a full moon. It is the most predictable geographical feature on Earth with eruptions about every 91 minutes. Even though it is one of the most popular sights in the park, there were very few people out to see it at 10pm.  Partially hidden behind the top of the plume, you can see the Big Dipper, or 'Ursa Major' constellation.
    Old Faithful Moonlight
  • To the local rancher it might just be a random spot on the dirt road they drive everyday. But to me it was a place I had scouted out in advance after studying topo maps, to find the best north-facing view of the Crazy Mountains. Located in Central Montana, the Crazies are always an eye-catching sight. As the highest and most prominent of the state’s many island mountain ranges, it’s jagged peaks rise straight up out of the prairie and pierce the sky. The Crazies are sacred to the local Crow Tribe, and considered ominous and unpredictable. Somewhere up there is an old tripod of mine that mysteriously vanished one night. After a fiery sunset, the clouds cleared and Comet NEOWISE soon appeared. Before it rapidly faded, mid-July was the best time to view the comet. With no interference from moonlight, the enormous dual tails of NEOWISE were visible in all their glory. The blue ion tail consists of gases ionized by UV light and influenced by the magnetic field of the solar wind to point in a straight line. The white dust tail on the other hand, consists of neutral dust particles that are more widely dispersed.
    Crazy Comet
  • The strongest geomagnetic storm (G3) of 2018 brought the aurora down to lower latitudes. I wasn't expecting much with hazy skies and a full moon working against me. But I had to try shooting it, since opportunities to see the aurora have been exceedingly rare as the sun heads deeper into solar minimum. And to my surprise a faint green band of light was visible to my eyes, which ended my 9-month streak since I last saw the northern lights. There are several north-facing locations nearby that I keep in the back of my mind, waiting for nights like this one. This two-track road is just over the stateline in Montana. Strange noises filled the night air including crickets chirping, sandhill cranes calling, and coyotes howling. Even though the moonlight drowned out much of the aurora, it did help with lighting up the landscape for photos.
    Smoky Pillars
  • In late September a high speed solar wind stream reached earth, causing a G1 geomagnetic storm. The aurora borealis became visible in the northern part of the United States. Around here the weather was completely clear and there was no moon making conditions perfect for viewing the northern lights. I went to the grasslands outside of Lodge Grass, Montana, where there was very little light pollution. The aurora was at it's best shortly before midnight. While the pillars danced from right to left, nearby cows mooed and coyotes howled. Quite a few meteors and satellites lit up the sky as well. The geomagnetic storm is ongoing and the aurora may be visible again tonight.
    Lodge Grass Aurora
  • Early on the morning of February 19th, the northern lights made an appearance in Central Illinois. It happened to be one of the few winter nights that was clear and not bitterly cold. There was still plenty of snow on the ground, and the barn was illuminated by a quarter moon. I waited around for many hours, but the aurora was only bright for about 10 minutes. That is how it often happens with mid-latitude auroras.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: February 19, 2014
    Barn and Pillars
  • Early on this morning the aurora once again returned to the skies of Wyoming. I went out stargazing with low expectations of seeing it. Statistically March is the most geomagnetically active month of the year. Magnetic field lines from the sun have an easier time connecting with Earth in the weeks surrounding the equinoxes. It only takes a slight uptick in the solar wind or a brief southern tilt of the magnetic field for the northern lights to brighten up. That's what happened at 10PM, and again after 1AM. Most of the time it was a "deep-sky aurora," which means it was too dim to see with my eyes, but it showed up on camera with a long-exposure. Although it did barely cross the threshold of naked eye visibility when I watched pillars rise up and dance around for a few minutes. After melting during the day, the sound of new ice shifting and crackling echoed across Lake DeSmet on this frosty night.
    Aurora and Ice
  • I went back and had another go at processing my solar eclipse pictures. Here I combined several shots and tried to show every feature of the eclipse that I was able to capture. There is such a huge range of light that it's impossible to capture it all in one image. The glow around the sun is called the corona. Shaped by complex magnetic fields, it consists of super-heated plasma up to 450X hotter than the solar surface. The sun's north pole is located at 10 o'clock where the magnetic field lines are shorter. The red fringes on the right are fiery solar prominences, several times the size of Earth. Also shown is the diamond ring effect, when the first bright sliver of sunlight reappears from behind the moon. Details on the lunar surface can be seen because of an effect called earthshine (not to be confused with moonshine). Sunlight is reflected off of the Earth and faintly illuminates the dark side of the moon. Regulus is the star visible on the lower left.
    Eclipse All In One
  • Northern lights dance in the north and the zodiacal light shines in the east. This view was seen from the 6700 foot summit of Cougar Peak in Montana. This sky was untouched by light pollution, allowing the fainter stars and aurora to be visible. This 4 shot panorama covers a large portion of the sky.
    Aurora Zodiacal Light 2:1
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