Aurora Borealis lens recommendation

[Clide]

Heading to Norway on a 2 week coastal cruise in 2 weeks. I want to photograph the aurora borealis. I own the Sony 20mm, f 1.8, will that do the job? I understand the Sony 14 mm f 1.8 gm would be ideal for astro. If you own the 14mm gm what other genres do you use it for other than astro? Thanks for your opinions.

 

[spudhead]

Heading to Norway on a 2 week coastal cruise in 2 weeks. I want to photograph the aurora borealis. I own the Sony 20mm, f 1.8, will that do the job? I understand the Sony 14 mm f 1.8 gm would be ideal for astro. If you own the 14mm gm what other genres do you use it for other than astro? Thanks for your opinions.

Sorry Clide no help on this one mate, its not anything I have ever tried

 

[evacguy]

Heading to Norway on a 2 week coastal cruise in 2 weeks. I want to photograph the aurora borealis. I own the Sony 20mm, f 1.8, will that do the job? I understand the Sony 14 mm f 1.8 gm would be ideal for astro. If you own the 14mm gm what other genres do you use it for other than astro? Thanks for your opinions.

I've been going to Norway for 10 years on a regular basis for extended durations (I'm a visiting Professor at a University there) and I have even been to Svalbard during the winter, but I have never managed to see the northern lights, good luck! However, over the past weeks the Northern Lights have been rather prominent, with observations in the north of England, even rating a mention on the BBC News, so you may be in luck. There is also a lot of solar activity at the moment, with a large 'solar storm' on Friday, but I'm not sure that this will continue for a couple of weeks. Good luck, I look forward to seeing your photographs.

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Hi Clide,
the 14mm or 20mm would be good for the aurora Borealis, the 14mm will of course give the extra wide angle but at those times when i have shot astro , mainly the milky way and stars, i have used the 20mm f1.8 and this gives a reasonably short exposure time and avoids star coma or star trails.....15-30seconds exposure time.

The 14mm and the 20mm will tend to exhibit edge distortion at low f numbers so you may want to stop the lenses down to f2.0 or more to avoid this.

Good luck and if you shoot stars don't forget to shoot in manual and maybe set your focus during the day on a distant object at infinity and lock it in manual for night shooting.

You will of course need a good steady tripod and remote trigger to avoid camera vibration.

Any nearby lights, or if the moon is visible will limit the quality of your images and of course if it is a cloudy night that will present some challenges.....

Many of the above measures may not be necessary for the aurora borealis and apply mainly to star shooting.

Hope this helps

 

[Clide]

I've been going to Norway for 10 years on a regular basis for extended durations (I'm a visiting Professor at a University there) and I have even been to Svalbard during the winter, but I have never managed to see the northern lights, good luck! However, over the past weeks the Northern Lights have been rather prominent, with observations in the north of England, even rating a mention on the BBC News, so you may be in luck. There is also a lot of solar activity at the moment, with a large 'solar storm' on Friday, but I'm not sure that this will continue for a couple of weeks. Good luck, I look forward to seeing your photographs.

Hurtigruten cruise lines guarantees we will see the Northern Lights, or we get a free cruise. When in the US Navy we did a NATO exercise cruise up to Norway in the March/April. I did get to see them at that time but was not into photography so no pictures.

 

[Clide]

Hi Clide,
the 14mm or 20mm would be good for the aurora Borealis, the 14mm will of course give the extra wide angle but at those times when i have shot astro , mainly the milky way and stars, i have used the 20mm f1.8 and this gives a reasonably short exposure time and avoids star coma or star trails.....15-30seconds exposure time.

The 14mm and the 20mm will tend to exhibit edge distortion at low f numbers so you may want to stop the lenses down to f2.0 or more to avoid this.

Good luck and if you shoot stars don't forget to shoot in manual and maybe set your focus during the day on a distant object at infinity and lock it in manual for night shooting.

You will of course need a good steady tripod and remote trigger to avoid camera vibration.

Any nearby lights, or if the moon is visible will limit the quality of your images and of course if it is a cloudy night that will present some challenges.....

Many of the above measures may not be necessary for the aurora borealis and apply mainly to star shooting.

Hope this helps

Thanks Ray, I thought the 20mm would be adequate. I would pick up the 14 mm if I thought I would use it after this trip, but I have my doubts.

 

[evacguy]

Hurtigruten cruise lines guarantees we will see the Northern Lights, or we get a free cruise. When in the US Navy we did a NATO exercise cruise up to Norway in the March/April. I did get to see them at that time but was not into photography so no pictures.

You probably don't want to hear this, but I've been working with Hurtigruten cruise lines for the past few years on a project concerned with passenger ship evacuation in polar waters. I have two PhD students working on the project, one just completed a couple of months ago. Hurtigruten are a really good company I'm sure you'll enjoy the cruise. They must be pretty confident with a guarantee like that! Do you know the name of ship you'll be on?

 

[Clide]

You probably don't want to hear this, but I've been working with Hurtigruten cruise lines for the past few years on a project concerned with passenger ship evacuation in polar waters. I have two PhD students working on the project, one just completed a couple of months ago. Hurtigruten are a really good company I'm sure you'll enjoy the cruise. They must be pretty confident with a guarantee like that! Do you know the name of ship you'll be on?

MS Trollfjord. This will be our second trip with them. We did a circumnavigate tour of Iceland with them. Many Brits onboard who just raved about Norwegian Coastal experience cruise. Can you discuss more the purpose of your study? Thanks

 

[evacguy]

MS Trollfjord. This will be our second trip with them. We did a circumnavigate tour of Iceland with them. Many Brits onboard who just raved about Norwegian Coastal experience cruise. Can you discuss more the purpose of your study? Thanks

Yes, happy to discuss our work. The ship we based most of our analysis on was the MS Roald Amundsen. So far we have published 3 open access journal papers on our work, based on the research of the first PhD student that has completed his work. You can get access to these papers for free by following the links shown below. Essential, I have suggested that because of the huge increase in cruise ship traffic in polar waters, it is essential that IMO regulations associated with passenger ship evacuation (which I helped to write) must take into consideration the impact of evacuation in Polar Waters. While the new(ish) Polar Code does address safe operations of passenger ships in Polar Waters, it does not address the issue of evacuation, and not to the extent that the IMO ship evacuation code does. Part of the problem is that there is no real data to quantify the impact of evacuation in cold weather, and what data that is available is questionable as it is provided by the manufacturers of equipment such as the Thermal Protection Immersion Suits (TPIS). So the two projects I started is an attempt to start the process, we studied two different types of TPIS in common usage (one used by Hurtigruten) and undertook a large study of how long it takes to don the TPIS (see paper (1)) and how the TPIS impacts walking speeds on decks (at angles of heel) (see paper (2)) and up and down stairs. Using the data we collected, we then modified our ship evacuation models to measure the impact these might have on various evacuation scenarios (see paper (3)). The introduction of each paper provides the background to our studies and the rationale for the reseach.

(1) Azizpour, Hooshyar , Galea, Edwin R., Erland, Sveinung, Batalden, Bjorn Morten , Deere, Steven , Oltedal, Helle, Factors influencing the time required to don thermal protective immersion suits correctly, Safety Science, 164 (2023), 106064, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2023.106064

(2) Azizpour, Hooshyar, Galea, Edwin R., Deere, Steven, Erland, Sveinung, Batalden, Bjorn Morten, Oltedal, Helle, Analysis of the impact of deploying thermal protective immersion suits on evacuation time for passenger ships operating in polar waters, Ocean Engineering, 283, (2023), 114725, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.114725

(3) Azizpour, Hooshyar , Galea, Edwin R., Erland, Sveinung, Batalden, Bjorn Morten , Deere, Steven , Oltedal, Helle (2021), An experimental analysis of the impact of thermal protective immersion suit and angle of heel on individual walking speeds. Safety Science, 2022, 105621, ISSN 0925-7535, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105621.

Happy to take this off line if you would like more information, happy to answer any questions.

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Thanks Ray, I thought the 20mm would be adequate. I would pick up the 14 mm if I thought I would use it after this trip, but I have my doubts.

Yes the 14mm is extreme. As above my go to prime lens is the 20mm f1.8 prime but i also have the Sigma 14-24mm f2.8 which is very useful when i am shooting varied landscapes and even some city scapes etc. This lens has very good performance characteristics and is relatively cheap compared to its Sony equivalent.....

 

[Clide]

Thanks for everyone's thoughts/recommendations. I have decided to use my 20mm f1.8 for the trip. Hopefully will bring back some good shots if the weather cooperates.

 

[evacguy]

Thanks for everyone's thoughts/recommendations. I have decided to use my 20mm f1.8 for the trip. Hopefully will bring back some good shots if the weather cooperates.

Looking forward to the photographs, travel safe.