September 2005
Aurora Gallery
back to spaceweather.com

Summary: September is the beginning of aurora season. Why? It has to do with the sun's magnetic field near Earth--the so-called interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). When the IMF tips south, it opens a crack in Earth's magnetic defenses against the solar wind, fueling geomagnetic storms. During the weeks around the autumnal equinox, the IMF tips further south, on average, than it does at any other time of the year--hence aurora season. [See also the August 2005 aurora gallery.]

This is Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5

Got pictures? Submit them.
Unless otherwise stated, all images are copyrighted by the photographers.


  Photographer, Location Images Comments

Travis Novitsky,
Grand Portage, Minnesota
Sep. 02
#1, #2, #3, more

The building in the foreground is the Hollow Rock Resort in Grand Portage, MN. What was particularly cool about the northern light show this evening was that because of the 'Bayou Boogie', which takes place every Labor Day weekend at Grand Portage Lodge and Casino, all of the cabins at Hollow Rock were booked by the Cajun performers for the Bayou Boogie, all from New Orleans. As they returned back to the cabins after playing their music at the lodge, the Cajuns saw me setting up my tripod on the beach, and some came down to see what I was up to. It was incredible to share the wonder of the Northern Lights with people who had never seen them before. Most of them knew that their homes back in New Orleans no longer existed because of Hurricane Katrina. As they sat and stared in awe at the sky and conversed with me, all of that was temporarily forgotten. 30 sec. exposure, f4.0, ISO 800, Canon 20D Digital SLR

Yuichi Takasaka,
Smithers, British Columbia, Canada
Sep. 04
#1, #2, more

Aurora started to appear when I arrived at the camp site at 2200 PST (Sept. 3). Most of the sky was cloud covered, but a little break in Northen sky made this show possible. Lights danced quickly around midnight, and disappeared behind clouds at 0300. Pentax *istD, SMC-FA 20mm f2.8 lens.

Philippe Moussette,
Mont Cosmos observatory St-Elzéar Québec Canada
Sep. 05
#1, #2, more

This aurora was taked 18 200mm d3.5 Tamron lent 15 secondes exposed at 1600ASA whit Canon 20D

Jorma Koski,
Sondby village in the archipelago of Porvoo, Finland
Sep. 02
#1, more

While starting an imaging session of deep sky wonders some alarms came thru the cellular phone and I soon realized this is going to be a night of spectacular Aurora Borealis. The show started typically with a bow in the low northern part of the sky. The green was very bright, but no remarkable phonomena raised and the fog from the warm see water finally ruined all my attentions soon after midnight. Images were captured with a Canon EOS 20D DSRL camera piggypacked on a 10' Meade LX200 Classic SCT and a Peleng fish eye lens. Setting were 1 minute exposure at 800 ISO & f/4 and daylight white balance.

Calvin Hall,
Healy, Alaska
Sep. 01
#1, #2, #3, more

Nice bands of green aurora filled the sky from late twilight til early dawn. Sept. 1st to 2nd.

Pat Boomer,
Near Sylvan Lake, Alberta, Canada
Sep. 04
#1

Very nice displays through the evening. This was from a 15 minute burst starting around 0700UT. Canon Rebel XT, f3.5, 20sec.,ISO 800

Dean Smith,
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Sep. 02
#1, more

Our astronomy club was hosting a star party at the Space Studies observatory 10 miles west of town. The clouds broke just in time for the aurora. 16 sec exposure with Olympus C-5000 digital camera at ISO-320.

Dirk Miller,
6 miles west of Rice Lake WI
Sep. 02
#1, #2, #3

Was a great display.I used a 35 mm camera with 800 ISO film,shutter was held open for about 15 to 20 seconds..

more images: from Greg Orlowski of Saskatoon, SK, Canada (Sept. 2); from Dr. Tom Sager of Terrace, British Columbia (Sept. 4);

back to spaceweather.com