Much of the continental U.S. was treated to a rare sighting of the northern lights Tuesday, and they could come back tonight.
If you didn’t get a chance to see them Tuesday, or maybe you want to try your hand at photographing them tonight, here are some things to keep in mind:
Where to look
Considering that these are the northern lights, created by explosions of plasma bursting from solar storms, find a clear horizon and look north.
While the auroras should be visible a little after sunset and just before sunrise, the peak viewing time is from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
You can keep up with the aurora forecast, which is updated every half hour, here: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast.
On Tuesday night, the lights appeared above the northern horizon, but not directly up, like they were last year, when a much fainter but still stunning display of the Aurora Borealis made an appearance over the area.
Get out of town and away from city lights. The darker the skies, the better your chances of seeing the aurora.
When looking for a location for taking photographs on Tuesday night, I went north into the countryside around Bogue Chitto and pulled over on Mount Pleasant Road, where I managed to get a shot of a purple band of aurora going across a clear night sky. Since I was right next to the interstate, I set up a tripod on a nearby overpass and faced north to get a shot of taillights streaking into an eerily red night sky, which I would not recommend doing for obvious safety concerns that I did not pay much mind to.
This was after 10 p.m., and by this time, what had been a faint hint of pink had turned into a clearly visible red, with deep hues and ribbons of dancing light visible to the naked eye.
How to photograph the aurora
Last year’s encounter with the aurora was really only noticeable through photography, particularly long-exposure images. And while forecasters may be able to predict where a hurricane will land with good accuracy days ahead of time, it seems that their ability to say whether anybody will actually be able to see the northern lights in Mississippi in a matter of a few hours isn’t as exact of a science. And really, when did it ever need to be?
But regardless of whether you’re using a smartphone or camera to capture the phenomenon there are a few things to keep in mind.
Use a tripod. First, and perhaps most importantly, your camera or phone must be perfectly still. A tripod or leaning your phone against something that will not move will help achieve this. Use the timer for your camera and don’t touch it until after it’s done recording the image.
If your phone has a night mode setting, like most iPhones and Android phones, use it. Some smartphones, like Samsung Galaxies have a fully manual mode in addition to a night mode, and the settings for manual mode are the same as if using a camera.
Once you’ve set up your shot, it’s time to dial in the settings:
ISO: This determines how much light your camera picks up. The higher the ISO, the greater the light sensitivity, which should make shooting things at night a breeze. But keep in mind, the higher the ISO, the greater chance you have of losing image quality, so you want to find the sweet spot — high enough to capture light but low enough to make a good picture. I did well shooting between 800 and 1600.
F stop: This determines how much light passes through your lens. The lower the f number, the more light passes through. If you’ve got a lens that opens up to f2.8 or a lower number, great. If not, you may have to compensate by increasing your ISO.
Shutter speed: For astrophotography, an exposure of 10-25 seconds is usually sufficient to capture the night sky if there is little to no light pollution. Any longer than that and you run the risk of the stars appearing out of focus because they are moving as the earth spins, and that’s about how long it takes to notice that movement.
Focus: To make sure the night sky is in sharp focus, manually focus your camera to infinity.
The Aurora Borealis is a rare treat for us Southerners and we should do our best to check it out. Photography helps us preserve this moment, and these steps should give you the best chances of getting a good shot.
