Auroras - Popular Science Article by Fredrik Broms

As a northern lights photographer many people write to me and ask questions about northern lights. The three most frequently asked questions are:

1) What are northern lights?
2) Where and when can I see northern lights? and
3) How do I take pictures of northern lights?

Few things make me more happy than being able to show people their first northern lights, and still after many years and many nights with auroras I still get that same feeling every time, like it`s the first time I see them.

To answer some of these questions to a broader public, I have written a 4 pages popular science article for the leading Swedish Astronomy Magazine "Populär Astronomi" which will be available in the stores in December (nr 4, 2010)

With this article I hope to answer some of the questions about auroras and to give answers on how to maximize the chances of seeing and taking pictures of northern lights, no matter if you live around the Arctic circle or not.

Below are some examples of images that I have used to illustrate the text in the article:

A clear northern horizon and a simple composition is often to prefer

Imaging in front of a water surface can make even very faint auroras look impressive

A corona is one of the most spectacular kind of structures.

Cloudy weather, like here, doesn`t always have to be a bad thing,

and can add a dramatic effect to the image.

Like with most photography, an interesting composition makes the image more interesting

Including a fore-ground makes most images of auroras much more interesting and alive