On the evening of April 23, 2023 into the early morning of the 24th, I was able to experience the best viewing of the Northern Lights I have ever seen. I was blown away by the event we experienced in March of 2023 and almost exactly one month later we had a second, even more extraordinary showing.
Much like that last event, the weather forecast was not in my favor. The forecast included a lot of clouds and when I looked out the windows of my house, I was pretty much surrounded by cloudy skies. I decided I would still take a chance and headed north out of town. This time I was better prepared as compared to the event in March, but I did still have a couple of minor issues I will get to later. This time I also made more of an effort to find a better foreground in case the aurora borealis did kick off.
I sat parked for about an hour waiting for the last of the setting sun light to disappear, and I could start to see some clearing to the west in the sky. I could tell the clouds were clearing as I had clearing views of the moon and Venus in the sky. Although there were still occasionally some wispy clouds passing in front of the moon. Eventually I could start to see some clearing to the north and I could start to see some light pillars starting to appear in the test shots I took out of the windows. With that, I felt like it was worth taking a chance and setting up a couple of cameras to see what I could capture. I setup my old Canon 5D IV and my Canon R6 on tripods for time lapses. I still had my Canon R5 to try and do some other shots.
On the old Canon 5D I had my Canon EF 16-35 lens and I used a farm that was somewhat north east of my position to add some visual interest. And on my Canon R6 I had my RF 15-35 lens and I faced that camera looking sort of north west using a nearby power pole as some foreground interest. With my Canon R5 I experimented with different compositions and different lenses. I used my Rokinon 14mm, Canon EF 70-200 2.8 version 3 and RF 50 1.2 lens with the R5.
A single frame from the Canon 5D IV time lapse of the Northern Lights above the farm.
A single frame from the Canon R6 time lapse of the Northern Lights with a power pole, the Moon and Venus.
Not long after I got the two time lapse cameras setup, the sky just blew up and it became so bright it was like someone had turned on a light switch. The storm built until I was surrounded by the lights. I could see lights from east to west, overhead and even some into the south behind me. I really was not able to capture the scene adequately, even with three cameras. It was one of those experiences where the only answer is “You really had to be there” to describe it to someone.
A tighter image of the Northern Lights above a grain elevator using the Canon 70-200 2.8 lens on the Canon R5.
The Northern Lights over the farm using a Rokinon 14mm lens on the Canon R5. The small size of the farm helps give some scale to the lights in the sky.
After a couple of hours viewing the northern lights, it was after midnight and I had to get up to go to work the next morning. There was eventually a little bit of a lull in the activity and I took that as my sign it was time to leave. Overall I was pretty happy with how my time lapses turned out. I was also able to get a few shots with my third camera. The issue I was having with that camera is that I was using a cheap ball head that came with an old tripod. The problem was that the tightening lever on the ball head was not designed to work on the larger base of the tripod I put it on, so I was not able to clamp down the ball head like I wanted to. I either had to leave the ball head slightly loose or I had to actually unscrew the head, tighten it and then screw it back on to the tripod.
You can view the results of the time lapses via this video on my YouTube channel.