I made it safely to Amsterdam, where I will be stuck for the next eight hours due to my canceled flight to Nuremberg. I tried various options to get home earlier, but nothing worked out. I hope that at least my 16:45 flight is on time so I make it to the birthday party of a good friend the Significant Other and I are invited to.
But at least the heaven tried to cheer me up, and this with much success. I was kissed by a magic heavenly light show high above the Northern Atlantic, just as the Delta Airbus left North Western Canada (Baffin Island) for Greenland. And this time I saw the inflight Northern Lights sitting on the right side of the plane, the window facing south. For my how-to and more photos continue after the jump…
Photographing the Aurea turned out to be a bit challenging. Think about it, you shoot out if a moving airplane through a plastic window reflecting cabin lighting into a more or less dark night sky. I had my OM-D E-M1 with the 12-100 F/4 next to me. So I piled up my blanket onto the armrest below the window, but the camera on top with the lens almost touching the window, closed the shades from the top down until it touched the lens barrel, piled my sweater onto of the camera to block out any light reflections from inside the cabin and shot, checking the images through the tilted LCD screen that stuck out from underneath the sweater. Not perfect, but the best I could do. I dialed in 2.5 sec of shutter speed, cranked up the ISO to 6400 at shot wide open at f/4 with the zoom set to wide angle at 12mm. E voilà! I’m quite happy with what I captured, considering a 2.5 sec exposure in a shaking airplane without any tripod.
The heavenly light show lasted about 45 minutes. I got the green version, as well as purple and white. Totally amazing! I saw more Aurea Borealis later in the flight close to Iceland, but it wasn’t as intense.
Seeing the inflight Polar Lights again really made my night! Kissed by the light and happy!
Have a great Saturday!
Marcus
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