Educateinspirechange.org Moonlight Aurora II This stunning image was captured by Mike Taylor of Taylor Photography on February 19, 2014 near his home in central Maine. Pink aurorae are a unique and beautiful sight to see. However they are also a trick our eyes play on us. We see an influx of aurorae when there is an increase in solar activity. Our Sun spews jets of charged particles 93 million miles towards the Earth and when these charged particles breach the magnetic field and interact with our atmosphere, they produce the stunning aurorae we see. These aurorae work in the same way neon lights do. The charged particles from the Sun interact with Nitrogen and Oxygen in our atmosphere, exciting the atoms and molecules. When an atom is excited it moves to a higher energy level, and then when it moves back down, a light packet or photon is released. This is what we see and the color of the light is determined by the type of atom/molecule. Oxygen atoms produce a green or red light and Oxygen molecules (O2) like the ones we breather produce a blue light. Nitrogen atoms/molecules can produce a blue or reddish light. So how do we get the brilliant pink colors like the ones Mike captured? Well pink is not a typical color seen on the ROYGBIV (visible light spectrum) but when blue and red is combined just so, our eyes perceive it as pink. Since cameras are designed to capture images as our eyes see them, the camera picks up the pink hues as well. The result is another brilliant image by Mike Taylor. EXIF Information for this shot: Nikon D600 & 14-24mm @ 14mm f/2.8 – 20 secs – ISO 800 – WB Kelvin 3570 02/19/14 – 2:56 AM Processed through Lightroom 5 & Photoshop CS5 -ALT Please make sure you head over to Taylor Photography to check out all of Mikes fantastic images. Taylor Photography
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 09:52:13 +0000
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