8.12.00
Rapid City, South Dakota
(Geomagnetic Storm)
I woke up at 3 am to observe the
peak of the Perseid meteor shower. The moon, which was about 3/4 full, was
setting in the west making for good observing conditions. There was a peak
in the aurora earlier during the day, so I was not optimistic about it lasting
through the night. However, I looked out the window to the north and could
easily see aurora lighting up the sky. I grabbed my camera and went to the
frontyard to start taking pictures. The aurora was the brightest I have
seen in Rapid City since I moved here. Even with the city lights to the
north, I could clearly see the aurora. To the naked eye, it appeared
mostly green, with occasional hints of red higher in the sky. Film can
capture reds and blues much better than our eyes, so the pictures turned out
quite colorful.
The Perseids were also
impressive. I was observing about 1 every minute and they were quite
bright. Some left brief ion trails as they streaked across the sky.
On two occasions, while I was facing north photographing the aurora, the ground
around me lit up as a bright Perseid passed behind me. It is similar to a
weak lightning flash that is behind you. I observed this before during the
Leonid meteor shower in 1998. I was able to capture one Perseid while
photographing the aurora. The Perseid left a short ion trail as it
streaked northwest. The image of this is below.
An interplanetary shock wave from the Sun struck Earth's magnetosphere just before the
peak of the Perseid meteor shower on August 12th, triggering a powerful G3-class geomagnetic storm.
Stargazers across Canada and in the United States as far south as Los Angeles were treated to the rare
spectacle of a meteor shower seen against the backdrop of colorful Northern Lights.
Photography Details
Camera: Nikon
FM2
Lens: Nikon 20mm f2.8
and Tamron 28-200mm f3.5
Film: Kodak 100vs
slide film (100 ISO)
Aperture:
f2.8 and f4
Shutter: between 1
minute and 8 minutes (2-4 minutes seemed to work best)
Focus: Manual focus at
infinity
Other equipment: Bogen
tripod and cable release
Location: west Rapid
City in the Carriage Hills area.
Exposures less than a minute turned out
too dark and exposures over 8 minutes had too much sky fog from the lights of
Rapid City.
Click on images to view a larger version
