Tag Archives: sky

The Aurora Forecast is Good but Will it Come?

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I can’t imagine that there are too many parts of the world that didn’t hear something about the significant coronal mass ejection that came the way of earth in May 2024.  If you lived nearer the poles, aurora discussions were everywhere, and social media posts were full of it.  If you lived elsewhere, you probably still heard about the potential technical issues our infrastructure could experience.  I have had no luck with previous aurora potential sightings so, while this was of interest, I had a dose of skepticism.

I didn’t make any plans to go and find a location to see the aurora if it was visible in our area although I had checked out the dark skies maps to see how bad the light pollution was here and how far I would have to go to make a difference.  I didn’t do anything with this data though.  We were watching a movie in the evening and, when it finished, I stepped outside to see if anything was visible.  It was about 10pm and there was nothing.

I went to get ready for bed but kept my clothes on just in case.  At about 10:30, I went out again and still the skies were clear.  I had read that 10pm to 2am was a good window so I was still at the beginning of this so didn’t give up completely.  I messed around with a few other things and then figured I would have one more go outside before giving up and going to bed.  Fortunately, this proved to be the right choice.  I stepped out of the front door and saw something strange in the sky above us like a streak.  I watched for a bit and then things started to get livelier.

I grabbed my camera and the tripod and went out to grab some shots.  I also let Nancy know this was all going on since I hadn’t taken my phone outside with me.  For the next hour or so, I just stared at the sky.  The colors that the camera reproduced are far different to what I could see.  It is a more sensitive device for this light than my eyeball, but I could clearly see purples and greens in the sky.  The colors weren’t rapidly changing but you could see the transitions occurring.  One of our neighbors returned while I was out so wandered over to ask if I could see anything and I pointed behind them.  They were amazed by the sight and spent the rest of the time I was out looking as well.

At one point, I was beginning to be a bit tired, and the colors were fading a little, so I decided to call it a night.  Just as I said goodbye and walked back towards the house, the skies lit up again.  It was not letting me go that easily.  I watched for a little longer and then decided I had got a good enough experience and headed indoors.  It was certainly an amazing thing to witness.  Maybe somewhere with less light pollution would have made things better but it was pretty good seeing all of this over our houses.  The following night was supposed to be another good one, but the intensity was less, and I decided to sleep instead!

Repeating Cloud Patterns

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I was down in Burien on a day with some stronger winds from the north.  As I looked in the direction of Mt Rainier, my attention was drawn to the east and a string of clouds that had a very repetitive pattern.  I might have expected them to be downstream of a summit, but they were not obviously connected to a high point.  They did like someone had just discovered the clone tool in Photoshop and had not yet worked out how it creates repeating elements.  It took little time before they had dissipated, and I was left wondering what the cause was.

Unimaginative Sunset Shot

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One evening I was up at Everett for an aviation opportunity and, things were not looking good because the shot I was after was looking like it was going to be thwarted by a late arrival and the setting of the sun.  As it turned out, that provided a far better shot than I expected.  The sunset illuminated the clouds, and they provided great light for the arriving aircraft.  While I was waiting, I did look behind me and saw that the sky was glowing beautifully.  There was no way I wasn’t going to get a shot of that.  Sunset shots are rather passé but why not?

Wispy High Cloud Sunset

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A good sunset requires some nice high clouds.  I was up at Arlington watching the recovery of the Alice prototype after it had done some off-roading and the light was fading fast.  The clouds were quite high level and not terribly extensive so they provided a nice canvas for the low setting sun to illuminate.  Sunset shots always seem like a lazy shot but it looks so good so why not photograph it?

Mistake with a Polarizer

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I have been using the polarizer a lot during the summer with my photos.  The high sun provides harsh lighting and a lot of contrast and I have been using the filter to cut down the light and to try and reduce glare from white aircraft fuselages.  It has mainly been used on my longer lens also helping to get shutter speed down to provide some motion blur in backgrounds.  However, I did put it on a wider lens when some planes were taxiing past me.

This proved to be a mistake.  It did take out some of the glare and make things a little more balanced from a contrast perspective but, when used on a wide angle lens, it did result in some unintended effects in the skies.  The polarizer effect is quite varied depending on your angle relative to the sun and this results in quite a dark sky in one part of the shot and a brighter sky in the other.  The result is an odd effect which distracts from the plane itself.  Consequently, I have avoided using this filter for these shots more recently.

Strange Sunset Light in the Sky

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Sunsets are a regular theme for photographers since they provide a scene that resonates with people.  I have shot plenty of them myself.  However, while on Orcas, I saw something in the sky which I was quite baffled by and taken with.  The sun was setting in the west and, looking off in that direction, the sky was lighting up as you would expect.  However, looking directly south, the sky was doing something very odd.  I don’t know exactly what was happening but my guess is that there was a lot of moisture in the sky in that direction and it was reflecting the setting sun back in our direction.  It was a localized effect and quite something to see.

Night Skies on San Juans

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One great feature of traveling to more remote areas away from the cities is the clear skies you can get at night.  The ability to see plenty of stars when the sun has gone is great.  With summer approaching, the sun takes quite a while to go down so I had to wait until quite late to get a shot that I wanted.  I could have waited even later but I wasn’t that committed to the shot.  I wasn’t using a fast lens so, even with higher ISO, I was still using a 30 second exposure.  Even at 16mm, this still shows up some motion in the stars.  Ideally, I would have taken a fast wide lens but I didn’t bother renting one for the trip so this will have to do.

Stormy Skies Over Lake Washington

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One damp weekend day, I went to Kenmore to visit the camera store.  After browsing in there for a while, I headed down to Log Boom Park just to take a look at the Lake.  A storm shower had just passed through so I decided to try my luck in staying dry.  As I walked down to the water, my gamble did not pay off and it started to rain again.  However, I was able to stay out of the worst of it and take a couple of shots across the lake.  The clouds near us were really menacing but there was clearer sky in the distance.  Quite a range of exposures to accommodate.