Tag: fisheye lens

Aurora Borealis: 11–12 November 2025

The Sun remains active even though it has probably passed Solar Max—and auroras once again visited low latitudes, including northern Arizona. The geomagnetic storm forecast indicated auroras were likely into the middle latitudes with a chance of appearing at low latitudes. I was ready to view the aurora but the weather was uncooperative. Clouds increased during the day and by sunset a layer of high clouds covered the region. But an hour or two later I was able to see stars overhead (but not low on the horizon) so I decided it might be worth the effort.

It was worth the effort.

As we did for the October 2024 event, we watched and photographed the aurora from Ashurst Lake near Flagstaff, Arizona. I was again hoping to capture reflections of the aurora on the still waters of the lake and was successful. I even managed to capture an image with a heron standing in the shallow water and silhouetted by the bright aurora to the north.

At first the aurora was faint and clouds in the north blocked the view. Gradually, the clouds moved out of the way. And, then, between about 2135 and 2155 MST (0435 to 0455 UTC 12 November 2025) there was a strong substorm that lit up the sky. It was bright enough to illuminate the landscape and even cast faint shadows.

The aurora was seen as far south as latitude 13°N in El Salvador!

Here are a few still images and a time-lapse video. Images were shot with a Nikon D850, Tamron 12mm fisheye lens, ISO 3200, ƒ/4, 15 seconds.

The beginning of the substorm at 2140 MST (0440 UTC). Numerous pillars are visible across the northern sky (12mm fisheye lens).
The beginning of the substorm at 2140 MST (0440 UTC). Numerous pillars are visible across the northern sky (12mm fisheye lens).
A few minutes later (2148 MST; 0448 UTC) a SAR (Stable Aurora Red) arc appears above the pillars.
A few minutes later (2148 MST; 0448 UTC) a SAR (Stable Aurora Red) arc appears above the pillars.
A heron wades in the shallow water of Ashurst Lake and is silhouetted by the bright aurora in the north.
A heron wades in the shallow water of Ashurst Lake and is silhouetted by the bright aurora in the north.

Time-lapse video from 1948–2226 MST (0248–0526 UTC). Very little activity is present at first but then the substorm erupts with numerous pillars developiing along with a SAR (Stable Aurora Red) arc the propogates upgward. And all of this is reflected in the lake.

And there may be yet more big events during this solar cycle!

Here is some additional information about this aurora and current solar cycle.

From Forbes.com:

Some of the strongest and most widespread displays of auroras since Oct. 10, 2024, occurred overnight on Tuesday, Nov. 11, into Wednesday, Nov. 12, according to NOAA, caused by one of the most powerful G4-rated geomagnetic storms of the current solar cycle.

The potent geomagnetic storm occurred after two particularly fast-moving coronal mass ejections — clouds of charged particles from the sun — erupted from the sun on Sunday, Nov. 9, and Monday, Nov. 10, in the wake of an X1.7 and X1.2-class solar flares. It left space weather scientists on high alert this week.

The last three major events from the current solar cycle are shown in this table from Wikipedia:

30 April – 12 May 2024 May 2024 solar storms X1.2(X1.3)-class flares[95] and X4.5-class flare.[96] The flares with a magnitude of 6–7 occurred between 30 April and 4 May 2024. On 5 May the strength of the solar storm reached 5 points, which is considered strong according to the K-index. The rapidly growing sunspot AR3663 became the most active spot of the solar cycle 25. On 5 May alone, it emitted two X-class (strongest) flares and six M-class (medium) flares. Each of these flares resulted in a short-term but profound disconnection of the Earth’s radio signal, resulting in signal loss at frequencies below 30 megahertz (MHz).[97]

An extreme (G5) geomagnetic storm alert was issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – the first in almost 20 years.[98][99] The final storms reaching the highest level of NOAA’s G-scale before solar cycle 25 occurred in 2005 in May,[100][101][102] August,[103] and September, respectively.

With a NOAA rating of G5, an estimated peak Dst of −412 nT, and aurorae seen at far lower latitudes than usual in both hemispheres, this geomagnetic storm was the most powerful to affect Earth since November 2003. A later study estimates a Dst peak of −518 nT, meaning the strongest storm since 1989 and the second strongest since 1921.[71]
Oct 2024 October 2024 solar storm Triggered by an X1.8 solar flare that produced a relatively fast CME.[104][105] The storm reached a peak Dst of −341 nT.[106] Auroras seen as far south as Cuba.[107]
Nov 2025 November 2025 solar storm Auroras seen as far south as Central Mexico.[108]

 

Milky Way–June 2025

In late June we had an extended string of days/nights without clouds. So this was a good time to update my Milky Way photographs using an ultra-wide fisheye lens. I did a similar photo shoot in May of last year. As before, I shot from a pullout on the Mormon Lake Village road which gives me a clear view over the top of the lake.

Image of Milky Way over Mormon Lake.
Image of Milky Way over Mormon Lake.
Image of Milky Way with star reduction.
Image of Milky Way with star reduction.

The big difference between last year and this year is a new camera. I upgraded from my Nikon D750 to a Nikon D850. The latter has 45 megapixels; the former has 24 megapixels. Big difference and it should result in better resolution of the stars.

I shot two sets of photographs. One set was on an iOptron SkyTracker to follow the motion of the stars; the second set was without tracking to photograph the foreground. Exposure time for both was 300 seconds and were shot with a Rokinon 12mm F2.8 full frame fisheye lens. As a consequence of the fisheye lens the Milky Way appears curved.

The two sets of images (foreground, stars) were then blended together using Photoshop. The result was imported into Siril, an astrophotography software package, to reduce the stars using the Starnet package. Both the normal star image and the reduced star image are shown here.

It should be noted that there was a lot of airglow that evening and the reduced star image helps to see the structure and waves present in the airglow.

It was a successful and fun evening of astrophotography shooting.

Milky Way and a Fisheye Lens

I have taken countless photographs of the Milky Way using anything from ultrawide to telephoto lenses. But I have never taken a photograph of the Milky Way with a fisheye lens until now.

The Milky Way along with bands of airglow stretch across the eastern sky.
The Milky Way along with bands of airglow stretch across the eastern sky.

I like the result because it shows a large part of the Milky Way from south of the Galactic Center northward almost–but not quite–to Cassiopeia. Cygnus can be seen in the center.

As a bonus there is some banded airglow along the eastern horizon.