Astonishing all-sky aurora time lapse video

I have got to get to Yellowknife, in Canada. They seem to get spectacular aurorae all the time there!

A few days ago I posted an aurora picture taken by Stéphane Guisard. Well, in October he was up in Yellowknife, and using a special camera he took an all-night all-sky time lapse video of the aurorae as it flickered and snapped across the sky. It's magical:

Holy wow. Seriously, make this full screen. The slowly-moving stars of the Big Dipper and other constellations take a back seat (nearly literally) to the eerie green and red glowing ribbons created when the Earth's magnetic field fires subatomic particles down into our atmosphere. Of course, when the three-week-old Moon rises, it dominates the scene, but not for long. The aurorae draw the eye, and it's impossible to look away. Even the towering Milky Way wheeling around the sky couldn't distract me from the lights for long.

I also love how the clouds stream in, and it gets a bit confusing distinguishing them from the aurorae. And finally, as the video draws to a close you can see Venus hanging just behind the sickle of Leo's head, a sure sign the Sun won't be long to rise. And on cue it does, lighting the sky and washing away the glory of the magnetic storm going on overhead.

Stéphane has more aurora shots on his site, and tons more amazing sky images, too. Go see.

Related Posts:

- Up, up, and aurora!
- Time lapse: Within Two Worlds
- Lapland lights
- Surreal Arctic time lapse