Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory photo ambassador, a member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical "skyscapes" that connect Earth and night sky. Join Miguel here as he takes us through his photograph "Aurora Green Stripes and Dark Bands on a Full-Dome, Time-Lapse Sequence."
A full-dome, time-lapse scene captured with a circular fisheye lens during a surprisingly active October night features a northern lights show with very fast auroras dancing above the cliffs of Seljalandsfoss in Iceland.
The solar wind, or the stream of particles coming from the sun, sparked beautiful green auroras that lasted almost four days. The colorful light display is a result of the solar wind's interaction with particles in Earth's upper atmosphere.
High in the sky — at the end of the video sequence above — beautiful large, green stripes intercalated by dark bands are visible crossing the sky overhead. Meanwhile, the faint winter Milky Way slowly rotates in the background.
Video: Auroras dance over Iceland in stunning time-lapse
Related: Aurora guide: How the northern lights work (infographic)
To capture this time-lapse image, I made a sequence of shots using a Canon 6D DSLR camera set to capture a 20-second exposure for each of the 302 frames, with the ISO set to 2500, and an 8-millimeter circular fisheye lens, set to f/4.
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To get a print of Claro's amazing astrophotography, visit his fine-art prints store at www.miguelclaro.com/prints. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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