Gaps in a grey month

The last couple of weeks have been hard for enthusiastic night-time photographers in the north (for instance like me...), with an ever present thick grey cover of clouds dominating the sky.

Recently, however, a small gap in the otherwise grey month offered a fantastic view of the northern lights - here shining directly in through my window.

Other times, the cloud cover has offered the view of some optical phenomena, like in this case, a classic 22 degree lunar halo, where the Moon and brilliant Capella at mag -0.48 (just above the Moon) manage to shine through the clouds.

22 degree lunar halo

Northern Lights - The Winter Season is here !

Even if the autumn already has offered some nice northern lights, it is something very special to experience the first northern lights after the first snow of the season has fallen. At least to me, it somehow marks the beginning of the polar darkness period (mørkertiden in Norwegian) - my absolute favourite time of the year when everything gets more quiet, darker and more beautiful in so many ways.

Yesterday, both the snow and the northern lights arrived:

First snow of the winter + Auroras

Comet on its way to Earth

A very interesting short-periodic comet (103P/Hartley 2) is currently on its way to the inner solar system in high speed, and will, according to magnitude predictions, most likely reach naked-eye visibility during the autumn. On November 20, the comet will pass the Earth at a "mere" distance of 18 million km, which makes this comet one of the closest that has ever passed by our planet!

Below, I will post regular updates about the comet during the year:



4 November 2010

Today is a unique day in the study of the comet - NASAs EPOXI mission will fly pass comet Hartley at a distance of only 700 kilometer ! As a ground-based observer, however, I am confined to my own back-yard and managed to get these images using a guided DSLR with a 300mm lens while waiting for the clos-up pictures from EPOXI.

The large green coma and the faint tail can be seen clearly in the pictures. The comet is now to be found in the constellation Canis Minor, not far from the bright 0-magnitude star Procyon, which acts as an excellent guide-star for anyone who wants to see the comet for themselves. The comet can still be seen easily with normal 8x42 binoculars, even from moderately light-polluted areas.

29 October 2010

After a long period with rainy weather and heavy cloud-cover, I finally got another glimpse of the comet again. Despite the fact that the 57% illuminated Moon was very close in the sky to the comet (the Moon in Cancer and the comet in Gemini) it was possible to see the comet in a normal pair of binoculars using averted vision.

The comet is now to be found fairly low in the constellation of Gemini and a series of stacked 30-sec exposures reveals a very large and diffuse coma (I estimate the degree of condensation to ~D.C. 2). The outer coma was estimated to be as large as the diameter of two full moons next to eachother, so the coma is LARGE now!

29 Oct 2010: Comet Hartleys way through the constellation Gemini

11 October 2010

Still, very cloudy weather dominates here in Northern Norway, but tonight a 30 min gap of clear sky between the snow-clouds appeared and then both the comet and some northern lights could be seen. The comet has now made its way into the constellation Perseus (see map below), and is fairly diffuse with a large coma with a low degree of condensation (D.C. 2-3).

11 Oct 2010: Comet 103P/Hartley 2 is now to be found in Perseus

11 Oct 2010: The comet could be seen as a green fuzz-ball between the snowclouds and aurorae

At higher magnification the false nucleus as well as the green inner and outer coma and a faint tail can be seen!


8 October 2010

Tonight I only got a tiny gap in the cloudcover and only managed three shots during my 15-minutes long observing session. With very strong wind and no time for polar alignment, I simply just tried a 10 sec shot at high ISO (6400) in cover of the house as the comet passed by the famous double cluster.

So, not excactly optimal conditions, but I was happy to notice that the comet could be seen clearly through 8x42 binoculars in sub-optimal conditions and must have increased in brightness since last time I observed it. I had no time for any own magnitude estimates, but according to other observers, the magnitude is now somewhere around 5-6.

8 Oct 2010: Comet 103P/Hartley 2 passing the double cluster

3 October 2010

Promising news: Already now on October 3, is comet Hartley 2 well visable in a pair of standard 10x42 binoculars and offered a fine imaging opportunity when tonight it passed just below the constellation Cassiopeia (not far from Shedar, which acts as a good guide to finding the comet).

Below, the comet (glowing in green due to the presence of cyanogen gas) is passing close to NGC 281 (also known as the Pacman-nebula) - a large gasous-cloud (glowing in red):

3 Oct 2010: Comet 103P/Hartley 2 (to the left) and NGC 281 (to the right) in Cassiopeia

Astronomy Photographer of The Year 2010

The Winning Image "Surrounded by Space"

Each year, a highly prestigeful international photo-competition is arranged by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, UK. The competition: "Astronomy Photographer of The Year" is divided into three main categories, "Earth and Space", "Our Solar System" och "Deep Sky", where the best astronomy pictures and astrophotographers of the world compete about the title.

This year, more than 500 photographers from 25 different countries entered the competition. I was therefore very happy and honoured to receive information from the jury that one of my images "Surrounded by Space", showing a display of intense northern lights framed by birch branches in a northern forest with the constellation Cassiopeia in the center, was elected one of the winning images in the ceremony in London.

The other winning images can be seen in National Geographic News or in an audio slideshow produced by BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11213528

Arctic Waders in Troms

During the autumn large numbers of waders are passing through the area on their way south and can now be seen resting in the tidal zone around Tromsø.

Right now, big flocks of Dunlins (kärrsnäppa/myrsnipe), Curlew Sandpipers (spovsnäppa/tundrasnipe) and Little stints (småsnäppa/dvergsnipe) can be observed.

Curlew Sandpiper/Spovsnäppa/Tundrasnipe (Calidris ferruginea) together with Little Stints/Småsnäppa/Dvergsnipe (Calidris minuta)

Little Stint/Småsnäppa/Dvergsnipe (Calidris minuta)

Three Little Stints/småsnäppor/dvergsniper together at Kvaløya, Troms

Summer in Lofoten

After a season of intense fieldwork as a marine mammal biologist in Vestfjorden, Lofoten I have now returned home to Troms again and it is time to sum up some of the impressions.

It was a long field-season with many wonderful and magic moments out at sea, including encounters with both our smallest cetacean, the Harbour Porpoise and our largest, the Fin Whale, Unfortunately there were also too many encounters with whalers and the sound of the harpoon going off in the hunt for the minke whale as Norway is still one of the few whale hunting countries in the world. The small selection of pictures below will have to speak for themselves.

Slavonian Grebe/Svarthakedopping/Horndykker

White-tailed Sea Eagle/Havsörn/Havørn

Herring Gull/Gråtrut/Gråmåke in rainy weather

Northern Wheatear/Stenskvätta/Steinskvett

Cross Jellyfish/Korsmaneter (Staurophora mertensi)

Sea Urchin/Sjöborre/Kråkeboll (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis)

Vestfjorden offered first-class fishing for cod and mackerell !

The shy Harbour Porpoise/Tumlare/Nise (Phocoena phocoena)

Two Long-finned Pilot Whales/Grindval outside Moholmen in Vestfjorden

Long-finned Pilot Whale/Grindval/Grindhval (Globicephala melas)

Tail-slapping Long-finned Pilot Whale/Grindval

Curious Long-finned Pilot Whale/Grindval/Grindhval

Long-finned Pilot Whales/Grindval in Vestfjorden

Norwegian whaler hunting for minke whales/vikval/vågehval in Vestfjorden

Minke Whale/Vikval/Vågehval (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)

New photo-blog

Welcome to my northern lights photography blog!

On this blog I will try to share my passion for the night sky and astro-photography. By posting news, alerts and information about auroras and other astronomy-related topics, I hope to be able to inspire people to go out and enjoy the world at night.

A very peaceful, silent world, but also a world full of action is waiting to be discovered right above our heads, and I never stop being surprised over how much of our universe that can be seen and photographed from our own backyards with simple equipment.

Have you ever seen another galaxy or a nebula? Have you ever seen the rings of Saturn, the true Lord of the rings? Have you seen the sky suddenly filled with shooting stars or suddenly turn green and purple by auroras? Have you ever seen a comet in the sky? For all this, all you need is a pair of binoculars and our closest galaxy can even be seen with the naked eye.

On this blog I will update about coming events, such as bright comets, solar and lunar eclipses, meteor showers, how to find and view the different planets and other members of our solar system and much more. My main focus will be to inform about one of the most spectacular shows on Earth - the northern lights

I very much welcome any comments or suggestions how to improve this site, and as a photographer, I am always interested in comments on how I can improve my photography.

Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night !

As a photographer, I am mostly "nocturnal"