The heavens were beautiful last night … the stars and Northern Lights were amazing on a clear moonless night. The Aurora was not forecast, but was enjoyed very much. I was standing on a frozen lake in northern Minnesota miles and miles away from any light pollution when I took this photographs. It is a shame most folks now live in areas where they truly can not see the true glory of the night sky. The reflections in the first image are caused by refrozen snow melt on an ice road used by local fishermen.
In this second image I just wanted folks to see how the sky looked when I knew to jump out of the car and get ready for a solar sub-storm. Over the course a few minutes the Aurora glow visibly intensified and told me it was time to take my viewing spot (i.e. get out of the car and walk out onto the lake … Molly and I were parked at the beginning of the ice road at the end of the boat launch). The “dance” lasted ten minutes at 11:30 pm. We had driven 40 minutes from our home, and spent an hour and forty minutes at the lake. At midnight we drove home.
My Sony A6300 camera settings were: Rokinon 16 mm wide angle lens, ISO = 3200, Aperture = 2.8, Exposure = 8 seconds.