New paintings and regular art updates.
Yesterday’s dawn was very orange red on the horizon. This photo has bad camera shake but I tried to capture the colours by putting my camera on night mode and stopping when it got between 20 and 30 seconds. It would have just been very overexposed if I’d continued.
Something in the sky at 6.40 am, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. 26.10.24.even with my bad eyesight I could see the sky was patchy and a bit odd. I thought it was just clouds but the colour had a hint of green. This must be boring because it’s not the streamers and ribbons people usually see. Anyway it’s through me bedroom window.
But to notice solar activity this far south. The Sun is at solar maximum, most active over a 22 year waning then waxing. And I keep noticing it!
Bright auroras all over the UK. But they happened earlier and I seem to have missed them. When I did go out round the back of the house the sky looked normal. So I looked north at the front of my house. But I could only see a green glow through the factory lights. My Parkinsons camera shake was as bad as ever and I was shivering. So I totally apologise for this awful picture!
How the sky changed colour last night, apologies for the Parkinsons shake. I was lying in bed with nothing to prop my phone on. The best photo I took was the last (in the middle) about 2am?I couldn’t see much with the naked eye, but there had been a forecast of auroras on spaceweather.com so I chanced a snap or two, they started as a normal blue for a 60 second exposure, but then over the next few minutes it gradually changed to green.
Note the sun is at solar maximum where the magnetic north and south fields are increasingly entangled and cause coronal mass ejections, solar flares from the Sun’s surface. This weekends aurora were caused by an Earth facing set of flares.
Taken last night about 1.30am. I could see the sky was overcast, but it looked strange so I took photos again…. I think it must have been another aurora?
60 second exposures, sadly I can’t control the camera shake. I did not change the brightness or contrast, or alter them in any way. I only zoomed in a bit because the window looked to small in the original picture in my bedroom. I guess this shows if you can persevere you can get something interesting.
Auroras again. Last night at 2am. Looking West. This is a 60 second exposure taken on my phone camera which stacks images when my phone is set on night exposure. Midlands in England. How can I be so lucky? Never seen them until this year.
How did I know it was happening? I saw the weather forecast again so I decided to look out at midnight, but that photo was mainly blue with grey white splodges. So it was overcast. Then when I looked again just before bed the sky was darker and something seemed to be happening so I took a few photos ( I can’t explain how dim it was and I basically just risked taking a picture.) the main problem is trying to keep the camera still by leaning against something as my Parkinsons is getting more shaky
View from the north Midlands of England.
Just looked out of the backdoor, almost midnight and I could see a star so it’s clear but looked odd so I took some 60 second layered Night photos and the northern lights are vaguely visible again. Looking West up the hill over the roofs. It’s shaky because of my tremors.
I was looking outside tonight as I’d got the door open to cool down. I thought the sky looked a bit strange so I set my phone camera to ‘night’ which stacks a series of images over 60 seconds. I saw the photo had a slight green tinge so I took another shot, this time it was normal blue. There is a chance of auroras again because there has been corona activity on the sun.
Apologies for the poor quality of the photo, I shake too much so I get bad camera shake!
With my sister. We went outside looking for auroras. A lot of people living nearby had taken photos and posted them on Facebook. The sky just looked a bit cloudy to me, but a friend said she thought the sky just looked a bit odd until she took a long exposure. So I set my camera on night with a wide apature and it stacked pictures for 60 seconds. I shake too much so had to try and find a position to hold the camera still, hence the blurry shots. I ended up shoving my right hand against the door jamb and just pushing the button with my left, shaky hand. On the last one I caught greenish streaks. My sister took a couple of these. No real structure but proof you can see aurora even in the city with a long enough exposure! One off the bucket list!
I was looking at this tiny moth or butterfly and decided to take a photo. Not easy without a macro lens. I had to get close enough to take a photo but if I got too close it wouldn’t focus. So I moved away a bit, zoomed in a little bit and leaned on something for stability. (I have a shaking arm and camera shake is an ever present problem). I used the sharpness tool on my phone (only about 2%).
The moth/butterfly is about 2 centimetres wide at its widest part. Pale brown and white. I couldn’t see any antenna. Do moths rest with wings spread out, or closed, that’s why I’m not sure.
Mallaband-Brown