Gandalf the Green

[Kanadalainen]

September 26, 2020 - 1:45 am. The Aurora continue to be very active, reflecting some heightened ejecta from the Sun. The aurora ebb and gain strength contantly, one needs to watch carefully lest you slumber through a nice sequence! They sometimes engulfed the entire Northern hemisphere last night. In some of my "normal" wide field images, the green hue would invade the field of view.

Leaving all science aside, and recalling the many hours spent reading JRR Tolkien, this pattern of aurora strikes me as an image of "Gandalf the Grey", such a prominent figure in those stories.

Here he is, peering down at me as if to say, what now, who is this busy mortal?

This was caught by chance as the camera snapped off its lights.

So, do you see him?

~I

15 seconds, ISO 800, Ioptron tracker (Skyguider Pro), Rokinon 10mm lens, 60D with modification, very little processing to remove a small amount of noise.

[Bigzmey]

Beautiful capture Ian! Yep, I see him.

[Kanadalainen]

Beautiful capture Ian! Yep, I see him.

Thanks Andrey!

[Hankmeister3]

I wish we got the "northern lights" on a regular basis here at 40 degrees latitude. I've only seen the AB twice in the last 36 years we've lived here. They were both red and relatively small patches about forty degrees above the northern horizon.