Maywick Aurora

 A lot of things need to come together to get a good aurora. First a clear sky, an aurora, small moon, no wind

Well more or less, this is how it was as i travelled over to Maywick on the west side.

I had set off when i saw the stats altering and arrived just in time as a Yellow alert came out as i arrived in the small village

No time to hand about so i set the camera up on the tripod and headed for the beach down a narrow path and a steep drop 

I could see the aurora developing with my eyes and could see a faint green band which started to ripple

Not long after i could see rays and this coincided with an Orange alert

The sea was coming in fast and i couldn't get to the part of the beach i would have liked to get to.

Lots of rays started to show and i had a peice of good luck that the cloud started to block out the near full moon

The whole display only lasted 10 mins before fading 

After an hour i returned to the car just in time for another aurora to ask me if it was still visible

The sun is getting more and more active as we move to Solar max so i can expect more or better nights than this one

I have a few Shetland Aurora Hunter books, this is A4 size, 164 pages with 85 photos and its packed with information. Message me if you would like a copy £20, i can post anywhere in the world (extra cost) or if you are in Shetland you can collect

Shetland milky way and airglow

 A good clear night, the first for  along time, the aurora showed as a weak glow the stars, especially the milky way and green airglow was superb

Loo

Looking east with Sandlodge in the distance

The boats at sandsayre

Sanick, Sandwick looking south to Sumburgh Head

Sandsayre, Sandwick

Sandlodge

Milky Way

 

Seeing the Milky way is always a special even and on this night, it was clear and moon free

The ideal conditions to see and photograph the Milky Way down at St Ninian's

All photos taken at ISO3200 13 seconds at F1.8

For anyone who is interested, i am just re printing my book ` Shetland Aurora Hunter' , this is 164 pages with 85 photos, lots of info on how to photograph the aurora, history of the aurora in Shetland, what the terms mean and much more - £20+postage and packing. message me if interested.

Shertland sunset meets the Aurora

 The last few days we have lots of red alerts but Saturday was the only night to be clear.

Most people think they only can see the aurora around midnight at this time of year but as these photos tell thats not always the case

The Aurora appeared even before it started to go dark. A thin green band reaching out to the orange glow of a sunset down at St Ninian's isle

It was fairly still on the beach, a bit of a contrast to higher up where the wind was strong. I was happy to capture some colour in the sea , even with a longish exposure

The moon was no problem , not even showing this early in the night, around 9.30-10.45

Samyang 14mm Mk2 F2.8 review

The lens arrived within three days, good for Shetland. The box was also sealed which was a good start as it indicated that this one was not a returned lens

On paper this looked a good lens but as with all Samyang lenses its let down by poor QA. This MK2 14mm lens has a few upgrades.

1. Weather sealed

2. Lockable focus

3. increased resolution

Unfortunatley my copy didn't have weather sealing around the lens connection, it is shown on the  advert photos but was missing. A couple of other people have returned their copies.

Lockable focus would have been a bonus for anyone doing astrophotography, once focus is found it can be locked for other nights.

My lens was decentred as well, where it was reasonably sharp on one side while the other side was way out

It showed lots of Coma even stopping down to F5.6, not a thing you want to do with astrophotography. More light the better.

It is frustrating, i would rather pay a bit more to get a better quailty lens but although they keep bringing out new lenses with new features the main problem still goes on.

You may have seen my other post of the 24mm Samyang Astro lens, i had to send back 6 lenses, the same happened with this 14mm. I have lost faith with Samyang, i started looking for a lens back in October and still haven't got one.

It is a very time consuming excerise send back lenses, getting a refund then search again just hoping that the lens you get is spot on.

Time to move to another make