An Oxford Area School Observatory astrophotographer has captured a magical image of the township bathed in the beauty of the Aurora Australis.
Gary Naulls took the photograph just before midnight on June 1 at his Ashley Gorge Road home overlooking the township.
He set his Canon RP mirrorless camera, fitted with a Sigma 40mm prime lens up inside before heading out into the chilly darkness.
‘‘I set the exposure to M (manual), focus is set to manual as well.
‘‘I used the lens near or at full aperture.
In this case, I was at f1.8, with ISO set to 1600,’’ he said.
He uses a cable release to shoot the images and a tripod for stabilising his camera, but said sitting it on a solid surface would work just as well.
‘‘This aurora was pretty bright, so I was using a shutter speed of 3.2 seconds.
‘‘Sometimes I use a longer shutter speed, but there is a limit before the stars start to trail and turn into eggshaped objects.
‘‘This will also depend on the focal length of the lens being used.
I focus using live view on a bright star, and once I am happy with the focus, I compose the image, and take the image.
‘‘The aurora is in a southern direction, so aim your camera in that general direction, and off you go.’’
To keep track of when Auroroa Australis, which is also known as the Southern Lights in the southern hemisphere, might be coming out to play Gary has downloaded two free apps to his mobile phone.
‘‘One is called AuroraNotifier, and the other is called Aurora,’’ he says.
The apps send alerts when there is a chance of seeing an aurora, at any time, during the day, in the middle of the night, and while it is raining.
‘‘There is a Kp scale that ranges up to Kp 9.0. At the moment it is Kp 0.67. Once the Kp value goes past 5.0, I will go out and try some test shots to see if the camera can see any aurora activity,’’ he says.
Sometimes there is nothing, other times the aurora is visible.
‘‘It is not a continuous light show.
‘‘It will flair up, it will die down, and then it will flair up again.
‘‘You just have to be patient, sometimes it will fall flat, other times it will be very active.’’
Although perseverance is required to capture aurora magic, owning an expensive camera and lense is not necessary.
‘‘Try your mobile phone,’’ Gary says. ‘‘I have seen some fantastic pictures taken with phones.
‘‘You don't need to own a camera.’’
Although auroras, which are known as Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere, happen all year round around the world, in New Zealand the best time to see them is during June and July.
