Costello Kp index for this night We started shooting at the time marked.

10:50 pm MST the Aurora peaked, Polaris is center

Kp index in 3h intervals that night

 A
            massive series of solar flares in the past week have pushed the
            Kp index well up into strong storm levels, and on this night
            the Kp reached 9 for about half an hour sparking deep ruby red
            glows to the north east. Here in Arizona Auroras are much rarer
            than most of the U.S. but with careful monitoring of the ACE
            spacecraft data and a bit of luck, you can easily photograph
            this phenomenon here. More details below:
 

Click on the images below for a larger size:

Index print of the entire nights sequence. Each image is a 10 minute exposure, with the 16mm f/2.8 Zenitar fisheye set for f/3.5. All images are tracked and reset automatically to the same starting point at the end of the exposure. The first five images show the aurora, and the rest show clouds in the sky - not aurora. The last few frames show the morning twilight.

Image 1 - 10:40pm

            
 Image
            2 - 10:51 pm


            
(Best Image)


 Image
            3 - 11:02 pm

 Image
            4 - 11:13 pm

 Image
            5 - 11:24 pm


Instrument:  16mm f/2.8 Zenitar Fisheye at f/3.5
Platform:   Aurora Cam with Robotic Barndoor
Film:  Supra 400
Exposure:  10 mins
Filters:  NONE
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5100 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 8/10, Transparency: partly cloudy
Outside Temperature:  50F
Processing: Photoshop CS
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