Day By Day

Friday, September 30, 2011

Aurora Borealis

Recently I was on a ship in the Arctic Ocean and saw some remarkable stuff in the sky. Naturally I pointed my camera at it and took some pictures. The results weren't quite as clear and steady as I would like -- I didn't have a tripod, the ship's engines were making the camera vibrate and there was a little roll, but they turned out pretty well for handheld shots. Here are some of them.





This is my favorite. It looks almost like a surrealist painting, but it isn't. The raw image wasn't nearly this dramatic, but when I loaded it on the computer and punched "auto contrast", this is what emerged. I think I'll get it printed and hung.






While I was shooting the pictures Walt Kelly's wonderful nonsense poem kept running through my head:

Oh, roar a roar for Nora,
Nora Alice in the night.
For she has seen Aurora
Borealis burning bright.

A furore for our Nora!
And applaud Aurora seen!
Where, throughout the summer, has
Our Borealis been?
And from NASA, here's what the borealis looks like from orbit:



I'll be blogging more on the trip in coming days. Stay tuned.


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