May 10th, 2024…for anyone into the night sky stuff, this date will be long remembered. There were numerous reports that the Aurora could be pretty good on this night…but before it even got dark…you could see color between the clouds. The pink and purple was clearly visible to the naked eye.
Once it got dark, you could point a camera in any direction and you’d see color…and this is in Iowa mind you…not Iceland or Norway.
The lights would be vibrant all night long.
I have to admit, on the photographic side, I didn’t do all that well. I didn’t pay attention to the focus…either from shear excitement, or it was just that I don’t shoot that much astro to be really good at it.
Lenses fogged over, focus was bad, I should have used a tripod more often instead of trying to hand hold a few shots. I know this sounds crazy but you can hand-hold Olympus cameras for several seconds and still get sharp shots due to the excellent image stabilization.
In the end I came away with a few keepers and a lot of lessons.
Fortunately we would see the lights again, in October of 2024, and on several other nights as well. None were quite equal to this first event in May, but they gave me a chance to figure some things out and get better results with the camera.
When all is said and done…you can only be thankful for it all. Its not like the aurora is all that common this far south..but sometimes, when things are right, it can really put on a show!