The Northern Lights Flights

The following images are copyright Paul Money (unless otherwise credited) and permission is granted to download them and print for your own personal use to show family and friends. All views and comments made here are my own personal observations. It should be noted that as the aircraft is continually moving (of which I'm glad!) the images are long exposures of several seconds, with the Canon camera generally 15 seconds. Thus some star trailing occurs on the original raw images. Where it is possible I have done my best to correct the trailing with image processing , always with the aim of recreating how it really looked and compensating for any trailing of the stars. I hope you enjoy the images.
Recent images from the flights during March 2007 I have been on and managed to take pictures can be found here
Noted Astrophotographer Pete Lawrence has become part of the regular team and has also managed to get some great images so why not check out his web site for more flight images
Here are some examples of the images I have taken on the Liverpool John Lennon flight of March 8th 2005 with a Minolta Dimage Z1 Digital SLR. All exposures were on manual setting and are 15 seconds at F2.8 ISO 400 equivalent.
The initial display begins The initial Auroral band is sighted and is fairly diffuse
 Brighter patches develop  It often begins to break into structure with brighter portions flaring up and other parts fading or pulsing
The band brightens A main bright band develops  with brighter patches shimmering along its length
 Sometimes 'Rays' extend up from parts of the band The auroral band sometimes curves back on itself and 'Rays' extend up from parts of the brightest sections

These images were taken using the same equipment on the Gatwick, Leeds-Bradford and Liverpool John Lennon flights November/December 2005 exposures were between 15 and 30 seconds.

The Aurora begins This shows the main Auroral band developing a bright section. Image taken on the Liverpool John Lennon Flight Dec 4th 2005
Bright band with knots in it A bright band developed on the Gatwick flight Nov 28th with rays extending up from it.
Enhanced view of the Gatwick image of Nov 28th 2005 Enhanced view of the Gatwick image of Nov 28th 2005
 Best view taken so far of the Aurora from the air This is my best image so far and was taken on the Leeds-Bradford flight on Nov 29th 2005

These images were taken using a Canon 300D DSLR on the Spring 2006 flights from Norwich, East Midlands Airport, Gatwick (2 flights on different nights) and Manchester. The Norwich flight was an early evening flight so we also got several bonuses of Mercury, Sunset and the Earths Shadow.

Sunset from 35,000 ft A Glorious Sunset to start the Norwich flight off with!
Mercury and twilght Norwich: The twilight sky and at far left near the horizon lies the planet Mercury - a rare event from a Northern Lights flight as they are normally quite late in the evening for take-off.
Earths shadow heads towards us Norwich: The Earths shadow approaching us from the East.
The Aurora on Feb 26th 2006 Norwich: Cygnus and Lyra with the Aurora through them and the last vestiges of twilight at far left. Note the aircraft lights in the distance below Lyra.
Norwich Aurora flight Norwich: Cygnus and Lyra with the Aurora through them - a fainter band but quite a few stars!
 East Midlands Flight 270206 East Midlands Flight (EMA) 270206: Aurora in Pegasus with Andromeda and its famous galaxy visible at upper left. Click here for an annotated enhanced  version.
EMA-270206 Another view from the East Midlands flight
 Cassiopeia EMA 270206: Cassiopeia from approx 36,000 ft.
Gatwick 020306 Gatwick flight 020306: Main band across the sky with a hint of the Milky Way as well.
 Cygnus and Aurora Gatwick flight 020306: Upper Cygnus with Milky Way and Aurora to the lower left
Aurora and rays Gatwick flight 020306: Best view with rays on far right.
 Northern Lights band and wing Panoramic view of main Auroral band and wing in darkness
Two week gap to let the Moon get out of the way.
Curtain effect at base of aurora Gatwick flight 220306: Note the curtain effect along the base of the aurora. This image is available to purchase via the Astrospace online shop.
 Aurora over the dark wing Gatwick flight 220306: This view shows rays extending up near the wing tip from a brighter patch of the main band. This image is available to purchase via the Astrospace online shop.
another view of the wing Gatwick flight 220306: This view taken shortly after the last image.
 Multiple auroral bands Manchester flight 260306: - the best Aurora yet!   
as previous Manchester flight 260306: note the detail along the lower part of the Aurora.
Aurora above wingtip with red nav light glow Manchester flight 260306: Note Cygnus above the aurora and wing tip illuminated by the red nav lights and yet the aurora is still viewable.
more detail in main band Manchester flight 260306: more structure can be seen in the lower parts of the band.
Wow - even the bright nav light can't spoil the view! Manchester flight 260306: Even a direct view of the red Nav light doesn't completely prevent viewing a display! This image is available to purchase via the Astrospace online shop.
Northern Lights Flights  Autumn 2006
Some of these images are now available to purchase via the online shop.
Gatwick 2nd Flight November 22nd 2006.
This was the only good shot I got but the display was excellant!
This image is available to purchase via the Astrospace online shop.
Norwich 231106 - 1 Norwich: 231106 - a stunning aurora  and probably the best any of us have seen in recent years. Note the multiple bands and the green and red glows.  This image is available to purchase via the Astrospace online shop.
 Norwich 231106-2 Norwich: 231106 - the display lasted most of the flight with the POSS web site reporting activity between 6 and 9 (where 10 is the best!).Here we see a brightening of sections of the main band with a lighter ray extending from the right end of it.  This image is available to purchase via the Astrospace online shop.
Norwich 231106 Norwich: 231106 - What more can we say - absolutly stunning amount of detail with multiple bright patches and structure all along the band.   This image is available to purchase via the Astrospace online shop.
 Norwich: 231106 Norwich: 231106 - the view as we were almost ready to turn back for Norwich Airport. The main display had  settled down but  still with some structure. The two main stars of Gemini are at right, Castor (top) and Pollux (bottom).


Most recent Flights for March 2007
Northern Lights Gatwick 120307 Gatwick flight : 120307 - reasonable diffuse band across the sky with little activity but still enjoyable to see. This image was the only one I got that was worth putting on the web site.

EMA 140307 aurora East Midlands Airport flight : 140307 - Great display with moments of brilliance but still not easy to image as it waxed and waned. A particularly pleasing display because my Father, Keith, was on the flight as his birthday present :-)
EMA Aurora 140307 East Midlands Airport flight : 140307 - Although the stars trailed too badly to record, the Aurora is such a diffuse thing that even a trailed image can look good and still give a good impression of how bright it got at times.




ã Paul L Money 2007