The Aurora Borealis has been spectacular recently, but not this far south AFAICS. But according to Carol Kirkwood on the BBC this morning, the way to see the Aurora is with a camera, which I wasn't using, just my mk.1 eyeball.
But why should this be? Are the Aurora outside the visible wavelengths, into the UV or IR for example? If so, how come people were apparently able to see them before cameras were invented?
I've never heard of a camera being able to "see" them better than a person, they've always been shown as green when viewed from the ground
A friend went to Iceland to see it. They were quite disappointed with the view, just white flashes the night they were there. However, on viewing the pics later, taken with a long shutter speed, the views were incredible, greens and reds everywhere. So, yes, there are some wavelengths we cannot see, and, on some nights, only the white light is visible. Events such as happened last night, resulting from a large explosion on the Sun on Saturday, all the colours were visible to the naked eye.
More to the point the human eye can not 'see' colours at low light levels, so unless it is a very spectacular display the light is too weak for the eye to 'see' in colour hence 'white'. The camera can do longer exposures than the eye so the colours become evident.
All to do with the sensitivity of the eye to colours at different intensities (Photopic vs scotopic vision)
HTH
Avpx
Nothing stops one reading:
If its really dark, then as they are faint, you could see them. even when I was still semi sighted, I could see the lights. Back in the 1970s during solar storms that made them visible further south, you needed to be away from street lights, particularly the orange ones, High up to the north having a clear view. Then you saw sheets of coloured lights, even white sometimes looking a bit like distant sheets of satin and searchlights It is, after all only ionised gasses in the upper atmosphere created by high energy particles travelling down the magnetic field lines to the poles. On the ISS they see two per orbit normally. Brian
No some are definitely violet. I'm pretty sure some are outside our visual range, but also of course changed by the atmosphere in between to some extent. Nitrogen tends to be blue. Brian
I think this is in the end the real explanation. Part of my retina is destroyed and if a red light strays into that part of the field it looks white.
The NZ Arora Watch (Southern Lights) rates them from camera only to human eyeball.
As others have said, low intensity light usually shows up better on a camera with a long exposure.
Cheers
Dave R
I think everyone's peripheral vision is monochromatic ? Whenever I stay in a hotel with a smoke detector above the bed, the red led flashes are white if viewed 'in the corner' of my eye ? Or is that just me ?!
I can get that from the answerphone LED blinking on my DECT phone by the bed.
No, that's correct. If your peripheral vision is monochromatic, it would have to flash white, by definition. I think that's universal.
You can see them without a camera, but a long exposure on a camera can capture low light level stuff you can't so easily see. So Tripod, and long exposure (10s of seconds). If you camera has a "B" setting then you may be able to hole the shutter open for extended periods.
We were in Alaska the year that Mt. Pinatubo blew up in the Philippines. In Alaska, we were riding in a mini-bus from just north of the Arctic Circle down to Fairbanks, along the Dalton Trail. As the sun set, the Aurora started, increased apparently that year by Mt. Pinatubo's airborne debris, with huge sheets of waving lights in green and red and lots of other shades, spreading fri=om horizon ti horizon. It just went on and on. We got bored with watching it after a while, and settled down to watch a film instead.
A feature that I find to be less common on digital cameras than on the old-fashioned mechanical ones.
That's everyone.
My EOS dSLR has it, but only when you use an external trigger (which you probably want anyway so you don't wobble the camera on the tripod)
Nope. I don't get that, just tried it again.
No its not, I don't get that effect and have VERY wider peripheral vision.
Mine isnt.
Certainly not everyone.
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