The particular image was striking as it looks (to me) to mimic an infinity sign. Some indigenous peoples (and others) assign significance to this symbol - hope you like it.
I was shooting deep sky targets in the southern sky on my big rig, and was backlit by this display. There is NO WAY anyone can image to the north with all of this going on - your DSO's become saturated with greens, purples etc. However, I have a weakness for them and bring the little 60D Canon out just for this purpose.
This aurora has an abundance of reds/purple colouration, which indicates participation of hydrogen and helium being hit by charged particles from the sun.
This one is my first aurora shot of this season - I shoot them in between galaxy images in widefiled and my deep space stuff (when I get the rig working properly). This aurora followed an appearance of what may have been an example of STEVE - an example of which I have captured a year ago here:
https://astrob.in/hvrdeq/B/I visited my dark site for the second night in a row - having had some clouds the previous night. The aurora on the previous evening were silent however yesterday evening were extremely active and began shortly after midnight.
In this image there is a significant amount of purple hue to the aurora, rising from the common greenish base. I haven't seen the purple emissions this strong since 2017, when I first began imaging aurora on my little backup rig.
Thanks for looking!
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The Canadian Space agency website provides a legend to explain the colours one might see in these aurora.
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/northern-lights/colours-of-northern-lights.aspThe following colours can be seen when the northern lights are in the sky.
- Green: Green is the most common colour seen from the ground and is produced when charged particles collide with oxygen molecules at altitudes of 100 to 300 km.
- Pink and dark red: Occasionally, the lower edge of an aurora will have a pink or dark red fringe, which is produced by nitrogen molecules at altitudes of around 100 km.
- Red: A bit higher in the atmosphere (at altitudes of 300 to 400 km), collisions with oxygen atoms produce red auroras.
- Blue and purple: Finally, hydrogen and helium molecules can produce blue and purple auroras, but these colours tend to be difficult for our eyes to see against the night sky.
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