From Christmas Lights to Southern Lights

After decorating the gargantuan Christmas tree last night, it was time head out to take more night sky photos. Another weak Coronal Mass Ejection over the last 36 hours meant I hit the rail trail once again, this time on the hunt for aurorae.

Whilst conditions swung around quite a bit, and the forecasted 'space weather' not exactly coming through as planned, it was still a lovely evening morning to be down by Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora, shooting the pink glow on the southern horizon.

For this shot I used the wi-fi remote on my X-T1 to take a self portrait under the night sky. As ever, the lakeside was full of noise; the calls of pukeko, ducks, stilts and other waterfowl ringing out in the calm and balmy air.

As my lens is non-electronic, the meta data doesn't come through, but this was shot with the Samyang 12mmn at f/2 at 30 seconds, ISO5000.