Northern Lights.

[andyjaggy]

http://m.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/northern_lights_viewing_condit/33834457

According to this we may just have a very rare chance to see the northern lights here in Utah on Friday night. I am thinking about running into the Uintas for the evening and seeing if I get lucky. Should be nice clear skies as well.

 

[Nick]

Oh man, that looks like an awesome opportunity. If I were up there, I'd point my camera north and let it run all night. I caught just a bit of them on a Uintas trip in 2011 during a similar rare flare event. The bulk of the light happened further north but I caught the edge of it on the horizon while shooting start trails.

Check out at about 0:33 in this video of mine. Notice the sky go all black and then the fluctuating purple and pink on the horizon.

And in this pic from the above video. It looks like just light pollution, but it's not. I really wish I could go backpacking this weekend now. Damn.

 

[andyjaggy]

I am still trying to figure out how I can make this happen. It's my girls birthday party Saturday morning. I am wondering if I might just try shooting from the mirror lake highway and head home in the middle of the night. They are supposed to peak around midnight.

 

[Nick]

Bald Mountain summit, or even from the pass would be cool. 3/4 moon rises around 10pm. That lights up the landscape and colors dance through the sky. Yummmmm.

 

[andyjaggy]

That's what I was thinking, from the Hayden Peak overlook might work well. Argg,,, that's a long drive in the middle of the night though.

 

[andyjaggy]

I'm going to be kicking myself for years to come if these end up making a showing in Utah and I am cozy in my bed sleeping through it. I think I may just have to go without sleep for the night.

I saw the northern lights once in my life. Here in Utah in 2001 on a drive through Provo Canyon.

 

[Nanda]

I would've been brave and camped out, but my photography skills are seriously lacking. Couldnt even take decent picture of yellowstone night sky.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Check out at about 0:33 in this video of mine. Notice the sky go all black and then the fluctuating purple and pink on the horizon.

Holy crap that video is amazing. Nice work!

Just out curiosity, is there an advantage of uploading to Vimeo as opposed to YouTube?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bob]

Good sites with info:

www.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation/
www.softservernews.com/Aurora.htm

 

[Nick]

Holy crap that video is amazing. Nice work!

Just out curiosity, is there an advantage of uploading to Vimeo as opposed to YouTube?

Thanks! There are a few pros to using Vimeo. For one, some music tracks can't be uploaded to YouTube. I know someone who once put great effort into a beautiful edit from a trip we did, only to upload it to YouTube and to have them cut the audio track out due to copyright. Not a common situation, but it happens from time to time. Second is that Vimeo allows premium users to embed things in HD automatically. And third, no ads. Ever.

But with that said, a large part of my job is SEO and videos on Vimeo don't get anywhere near the love from Google that those on YouTube get. I mean, they do own YouTube after all. Lately I have been moving more toward YT but still keep certain things with Vimeo. For internal business purposes, Vimeo kicks the crap out of YouTube with flexibility of privacy, etc. Lots of pros and cons.

 

[Dave]

That's what I was thinking, from the Hayden Peak overlook might work well. Argg,,, that's a long drive in the middle of the night though.

Ooooohh… you have me thinking now. This spot overlooking Fehr Lake is just a short walk from the highway and could yield pretty awesome results.

Fehr Lake by ashergrey, on Flickr

Maybe I should charge up my camera batteries.

 

[andyjaggy]

Nice shot, I always wondered what it looked like over in that area. That spot looks like it could work well.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Thanks! There are a few pros to using Vimeo. For one, some music tracks can't be uploaded to YouTube. I know someone who once put great effort into a beautiful edit from a trip we did, only to upload it to YouTube and to have them cut the audio track out due to copyright. Not a common situation, but it happens from time to time. Second is that Vimeo allows premium users to embed things in HD automatically. And third, no ads. Ever.

But with that said, a large part of my job is SEO and videos on Vimeo don't get anywhere near the love from Google that those on YouTube get. I mean, they do own YouTube after all. Lately I have been moving more toward YT but still keep certain things with Vimeo. For internal business purposes, Vimeo kicks the crap out of YouTube with flexibility of privacy, etc. Lots of pros and cons.

Being able to embed in HD sounds like a pretty big advantage. I'm not as concerned with search optimization, I was more curious about upload degradation, playback quality, and how stringent they are with music copyright. Thanks for the info.

Sorry for derailing the original topic of this thread. I'll PM Nick if I have anymore questions about this.

 

[Nick]

Looks like I'll have my camera pointed to the sky tonight, after all. Audra gave me a pass to skip out on a work BBQ of hers so I'm heading up to Pineview to camp with my bro and his family. The campsite is right on a north-facing beach. Probably not as good as being in the high country, but I'll take it. Hope that color hits us good!

 

[Nanda]

Nice. Is guardsman pass a decent option for north facing sky? I've never gone past silver lake in big cottonwood, so not sure views are up there along the road.

 

[Nick]

Looks like you wouldn't have much of a view from the pass, but hiking up to one of the nearby peaks could be cool. I'd probably opt to head south to peak 10,420, the first on that ridgeline as it seems to have much better northern prominence than the ones to the north of the pass.

 

[Nick]

On second thought, the view from 10,420 might have trees to the north...

 

[Nanda]

Ok thanks, I figure I will just up somewhere for a drive. Let's see.

 

[DrNed]

Bald Mountain summit, or even from the pass would be cool. 3/4 moon rises around 10pm. That lights up the landscape and colors dance through the sky. Yummmmm.

How tough of a hike would this be in the dark? I probably can't get away with camping this weekend, but like Andy has said I would really be kicking myself to miss out on such a rare happening. So I'm going to try and swing an evening drive up and early morning return.
Under those conditions does anyone have other suggestions on good, easy to access view points?

@ashergrey Never been to Fehr Lake. When you say short walk from the highway, how short are you talking?

 

[Nick]

With a 3/4 full moon, it would be very easy. There are some ledges and such to be careful around, but not a huge deal. Here's a trail guide for the daytime version: http://backcountrypost.com/forum/trail-guides/bald-mountain.86/

But honestly, you might have just as good a view at a spot like Fehr or Hayden Overlook like these other guys have suggested, and with a fraction of the effort. Moonlight peak bagging sounds kind of fun though. Imagine being on top of the peak if the colors actually immerse the sky and not just sit on the north horizon...