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 View to the south |
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Such an amazing experience!! This was the most powerful geomagnetic storm to affect the earth since 2003 and maybe since 1989. I was already on alert and monitoring Spaceweather websites. Multiple solar flares had already been launched toward the Earth. The Kp index increased to 8 and continued to a maximum of 9. I was already seeing reports of Mid-Latitude aurora from Europe. Would it was until darkness in Virginia. Unfortunately, the Richmond area was shrouded in clouds and rain. I would have to head west. I left in the late afternoon targeting the Staunton, VA area. I wanted to find a clear view to the north without significant lights. As dusk approached, this proved more difficult than I expected. Many roads were lower than the surrounding hills. I needed a safe isolated area to pull off and not near anyone's house. I drove north of Waynesboro, then west to near Staunton. Darkness was arriving, and there was no guarantee the geomagnetic storm would continue. Northwest of Stanton, I was seeing some nice places to pull over, but there was this annoying light to the north. I realized that it was not city lights, but the actual aurora. It was visible to my eyes without a camera. I found a nice fairly isolated spot and set up my equipment.
I watched the most amazing display of aurora. In addition to the glow to the north, I could see translucent "curtains" shifting across the sky in real-time. Nearby, I could see a red glow and sometimes green. At times, columns appeared and vanished. I was shocked to discover that there was aurora visible overhead and even to the south. I watched and shot photos. Looking back, I wish that I had also set up a time lapse. The aurora was much brighter on my DSLR or cellphone camera than to my eyes. I was set up by 9:55 PM. The moon was still in the sky, but it wasn't an issue. The display was starting to fade a bit by 10:40 and I tried changing positions for some different foregrounds. My cell phone was useful in getting "quick and dirty" shots to see what the aurora was doing before lugging out my DSLR. I stopped for some shots of the auora behind an isolated street light on a hill by 11 PM. I continued east and tried a few shots near Afton Mountain. The aurora was a bit more faded. I couldn't see anything with my eyes, but there was a red glow juts about anyplace I pointed the camera. I decided to head home. I drove back east under the clouds and rain. Near Richmond, I noticed that the Kp index was increasing again along with the aurora intensity. There was a clear area to the southwest. I decided to drive towards Jetersville (near Farmville.) By the time I arrived, clouds had filled in the clear area. With a camera, the overcast appeared purple-red at 3:30 AM. I couldn't find any interesting compositions and decided to head home.
The above photos were taken near Swoope, Virginia northwest of Staunton at the crossroads of Morris Mill Rd and Trinity Point Road. I used a Nikon D780 with either a AF-S NIKKOR 18-35 mm lens or NIKKOR 28-300 lens. The wide angle lens produced the best results. I mainly used ISO-1600, f/3.5 and varied the exposure between 8 and 2 sec. The aurora was also easily visible on handheld cell phone images though the quality wasn't as good with more significant grain.
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