Multi-Colored Milky Way

[JimFox]

Something I have wanted to capture for a long time now is the Milky Way during an Aurora. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had this visualization in my head as to what it would look like. In that vision the Milky Way somehow wasn't colored from the Milky Way, it was a nice solid clear core.... Dreams don't always match up with reality.

I did actually see someone online post a Milky Way with the Aurora where they did get the core of the Milky Way nice and clear and to be honest I felt it looked a bit odd. That's not to say this one doesn't look odd either. It's just something I haven't seen much of, so I am not sure even for myself what to expect. This one is growing on me though.

The lights and colors from the Northern Lights will change throughout the night. At this point in the night, there was a very sharp edged demarcation between where the Northern Lights were and were not at. So there is a bit of that going on as well, though it's more the light of the aurora as the magenta cast does cover most of the screen.

This is an 8 image pano captured vertically.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. This was taken up in Glendo State Park in Wyoming where I was capturing the Northern Lights with Alisa.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Looks almost like two images pasted together. Nice color show!

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Echo what Kyle said above. The challenge here is that the Aurora is constantly changing so stitching together multi second exposures becomes challenging.

 

[AlanLichty]

Neat combination for this capture - nicely planned and executed.

 

[JimFox]

Looks almost like two images pasted together. Nice color show!

Thanks Kyle. I have it before the light had that distinct edge, but then the core is more into the Aurora and is totally red, which I didn't care for.

 

[JimFox]

Echo what Kyle said above. The challenge here is that the Aurora is constantly changing so stitching together multi second exposures becomes challenging.

Thanks Jameel.

It stitched it just fine. If you are referring to that harder edge of light, that's the way it looked by eye even. It had developed that hard edge. As I mentioned to Kyle I have some from an hour earlier or so where the Aurora light was more evenly lit, but the MW was totally immersed in the red color from the Aurora and blending into it a lot more.

 

[JimFox]

Neat combination for this capture - nicely planned and executed.

Thanks Alan! It was really exciting to see. The few Aurora's I have been able to capture so far were not strong enough to shine to the South of my position, so if I had captured the MW then, the MW would just look normal.

 

[Alisa]

Very nice Jim! Wow Your core showed up better than mine.

 

[BlackRockArt]

Something I have wanted to capture for a long time now is the Milky Way during an Aurora. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had this visualization in my head as to what it would look like. In that vision the Milky Way somehow wasn't colored from the Milky Way, it was a nice solid clear core.... Dreams don't always match up with reality.

I did actually see someone online post a Milky Way with the Aurora where they did get the core of the Milky Way nice and clear and to be honest I felt it looked a bit odd. That's not to say this one doesn't look odd either. It's just something I haven't seen much of, so I am not sure even for myself what to expect. This one is growing on me though.

The lights and colors from the Northern Lights will change throughout the night. At this point in the night, there was a very sharp edged demarcation between where the Northern Lights were and were not at. So there is a bit of that going on as well, though it's more the light of the aurora as the magenta cast does cover most of the screen.

This is an 8 image pano captured vertically.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

View attachment 72543

Oh man, this is just fabulous, I have never seen such a beautiful night sky.

Oliver

 

[JimFox]

Very nice Jim! Wow Your core showed up better than mine.

Thank you Alisa! This was towards the end, my earlier MW the core wasn't as nice.

 

[JimFox]

Oh man, this is just fabulous, I have never seen such a beautiful night sky.

Oliver

I appreciate that Oliver. It was an amazing night!

 

[Mike Lewis]

Well in spite of not matching your previsualization, this is just fantastic! A once in a lifetime display! Looks amazing in every way. And such a large pano, great to print big! Where were you when taking this? Joshua Tree?

 

[JimFox]

Well in spite of not matching your previsualization, this is just fantastic! A once in a lifetime display! Looks amazing in every way. And such a large pano, great to print big! Where were you when taking this? Joshua Tree?

Thanks so much Mike!

I just realized I didn't state where I was at. I was up at Glendo State Park in Wyoming with Alisa. It's a great dark sky site I have found, and the water is awesome for reflecting the night sky.