Aurora Borealis (sept 2016)

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Inertia

I feel like I could... TAKE ON THE WORLD!!
[QUOTE 4490567, member: 9609"]Anyone get a good show last night ? It was well advertised and when the skies cleared here at about 1am I headed up into the hills for a better view, they were visible but quite distant and as usual only green in colour.[/QUOTE]
Im jealous, think Im too far down the country to see it, Reykjavik in Iceland turned off the lights for an hour to improve the view. I wish we did that for an hour near me, light polution makes it hard to see much :sad:
 

twentysix by twentyfive

Clinging on tightly
Location
Over the Hill
[QUOTE 4490649, member: 9609"]I'm lucky in that I live on the edge of a great dark skies area so I can get to enjoy the night sky and I always make a big effort to see the northern lights whenever they present, but I'm yet to see anything other than Greens, I once took some pictures and there was definitely a hint of red in those, so I'm wondering does the human eye ever pick up on the Reds ?[/QUOTE]
Eye is far more sensitive to green than red. Not sure what wavelength red is emitted but if it's quite a long one then it could be at the edge of sensitivity. That red end varies from person to person too.
 

twentysix by twentyfive

Clinging on tightly
Location
Over the Hill
Just had a quick look. The eye responds about 30% less at the red wavelength than at the green. And the red emissions are about 30% less than the green. So red " apparent brightness" will be about 10% of the green.
 

twentysix by twentyfive

Clinging on tightly
Location
Over the Hill
[QUOTE 4490666, member: 9609"]a camera will pick up the reds that I'm possibly not seeing[/QUOTE]
Camera pixel/film colour response will be different to the eye. Also post exposure processing can enhance colour rendition in the final image.

Anyway I wish I could see the aurora sometime.
 
Top Bottom