Star Gazing: August 4th

Last wednesday morning, a meetup for my photography group was announced. The aurora borealis (norther lights) were viewable the night before and there was talk of them being visable again that night. Sooooo after much debate "do I go and stay up late - losing sleep?" "do I not go and kick myself for missing a chance to see the norther lights?" "if I do go, do I go to the location that is only 30 minutes out of the city with a chance of not being far enough north to see them?" "or do I drive 2 hours north to another location some photogs are meeting at and waste a whole evening of sleep?"

All day I debated on whether or not it was worth it. Some members from our group were going to a nearby location just outside of the city lights - 30-45 minutes away from me. Then there were some going to a state park up near Duluth - 2 hrs from me. I knew that the closer location wasn't very far north and the best view is north away from the city....

I decided just to do the 30 minute location, and if we didn't see the aurora borealis then at least I'd get some fun star shots. Kyle came with me to keep me company and hopefully to witness the lights himself.

We got to see a pretty sunset:


And I played around with my cameara while waited for it to get dark.


The northern lights didn't come out that night, it was also comforting to know the guys up near duluth didn't see them either. (glad I chose the shorter drive) I did have some fun catching some star trails!! I did this once before and posted about it here.


Exp: 18 minutes 3 seconds (this is the max my camera will stay open)
f/3.5
18mm
ISO 400
taken at 10:49pm


Exp: 18 minutes 3 seconds
f/3.5
18mm
ISO 400
taken at 11:23pm

Happy Summer!