So I’m up in the 1000 Islands area in upstate NY along the St. Lawrence River. The skies up this way are fantastic. A wonderful family vacation, and I had just enough energy to sneak outside for some wide field astro-photography. Long exposures of any kind get me excited, so with Vega up in the sky, I knew Milky Way shots were just around the corner. That became my mission some wonderful wide field Milky Way Galaxy shots.
So outside I go, and set up my gear. Camera tripod, iOptron SkyTraccker and my Canon 6D. I get the rig polar aligned, and I have an excellent track going on 3 minutes. Time to target the Milky Way Galaxy area of the sky. “Let that 3 minute exposure rip, and see what you get,” I tell myself. # minutes later… what the heck? Where is all this red light coming from? Oh that is so irritating. I go looking around for a possible light source that is messing up my images. No luck….no light source. I quietly whine to myself.
Then the shot that tipped me off to the next three hours came up.
Hey…I know that green color. That only occurs in fishing lures and … … Auroras. Squeals like a school girl… “Dang, I’ve got me some Aurora coming up,” I tell myself. Wow I had no idea. Not much more to say. Check out the photos for yourself. It just goes to show, Always get out there, and always have your gear with you!
