P3D Re: Aurora

["KENNETH LUKER" <KLUKER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Ok, here we go again. There is a major aurora warning in effect for
> the next 48 hours, with possibly visibility as far south as Wyoming and
> Nebraska in the USA. So load up your camera with FAST film :-)

About ten p.m. local time I was enroute from Cincin. to SLC at about 
33,000 feet.  The pilot came on over the speaker to announce that off 
the right side of the aircraft interested passengers could see 
aurora.  Most lights were off with people dozing, so I killed mine 
and looked out.  The aurora hung in a curtain of pale green light, 
occasionally shifting, and having a width of about forty degrees, 
beginning a few degrees above the horizon and extending upward 
about ten degrees before fading into the darkness.  I watched to 
see if a stereo picture would have been possible (my realist was in 
my carry-on, but the exposure time that would have been required 
precluded any temptation to get it out.  I would have taken one 
lens at a time, separated by many miles.)  The lights did indeed seem 
to be considerably closer than infinity, so a stereo shot would work. 
 The plane seemed to pass by the light structures at about the same 
rate as it passed by distant clouds, which have proven to be very 
effectively stereo-photographable.  I would suggest that stereo 
photographers set up two cameras on a two- or three- mile base and 
synchronize exposure with a friend using radio or synchronized 
watches.  Except for the time-instability of particular shape 
formations, the results should be wonderful.  The light was VERY dim.

Ken Luker
_______________________________________________________________
Kenneth Luker
Marriott Library Systems and Technical Services
KLUKER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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