Northern Lights

Northern Lights (NL) in Howard County, MD on October 10, 2024. Earlier in the day there was buzz on Capital Weather Gang that the NL would be visible even in light-polluted areas around the DC/Baltimore area. Around 7:30 PM, photos were coming in from DC of purple skies in the city. As I had a prior commitment until 9 PM, I considered going out at all. With Chris in tow, I took a couple lenses and tripod to the Howard County Conservancy (HCC) for an open spot looking away from the lights of Columbia and Baltimore. While expecting some cars, the NL brought out hundreds of people to the HCC. Rt. 99 had both sides of the road with cars as well as the entire lane up to the parking lot. Attempts were made with my 50mm but unsatisfied, I grabbed my wide angle from the car.

While there were spurts here and there between 7:30 and 10 PM, we had great timing as the NL were faintly visible with the naked eye while setting up. Long exposures are required to reduce noise and bring out more color than the eye can see. As with most NL images on the internet, this has been enhanced in post-processing to make the colors pop more. You will not see it this vibrant with your eyes.

I have rarely touched this wide angle in the 7 years I've owned it. The downside is this is a DX (crop-sensor) lens and can only be shot in DX mode on a full-frame camera, forcing it to shoot in 20 megapixels instead of the 45 on the Z8.

Lens - AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR @ 10mm on Nikon Z8