The Northern Lights of the Year 2024

2024 is an exceptional year and has offered us two major magnetic storms

On the night of May 10 - 11 and October 10-11 (exactly 5 months in the between), Going to bed was a bad idea. Looking carefully at the night sky was the best to do !

After looking for the best view point over Serre-Ponçon lake (without electric pole and wires), Clad with a warm puffer jacket and lined pants, I took my tripod and my photography gears in a backpack.

The aperture of my camera was set on 15 seconds exposure (to be sure that the stars stay round) and the moon provided enough light to make the land appeared correctly in the picture.

The "Sequator" software has been used to get rid of the numeric noise.
Each panoramic view is the result of 15 pictures stitched together (3 series of 5 )

Northern Lights of October 2024

In this picture, Light Painting has been used : Bushes in the foreground were enlightened by my headlamp.

Northern Lights of May 2024

In this one, the ground has been exposed twice longer than the sky.