Monday 18th March 2013

As expected I was very tired when I woke. The good weather continues although it is getting colder every day and we are losing ten minutes of sun light every day. I spent most of the day working on the orange Hag and after work I took my camera out and experimented with manual focus and getting my camera settings right for aurora photography.

Once again I awoke at three o’clock and there were streaks of aurora running across the sky so I reluctantly made the decision to go out again. This time I took my time and put on lots of layers so I wouldn’t be cold and by the time I finally got outside the bloody aurora had mostly disappeared. I set up anyway as they come and go pretty quickly, this time setting up in front of the ANARESAT ray dome as the streaks were running behind the dome when I first came out. I waited and waited but it wouldn’t come back, so I took the opportunity to take many shots anyway to test various camera settings to see what works best. While waiting I was lying on my back on the snow drift looking at satellites crossing over head.

I was enjoying myself (and this time I was quite warm) even though I was disappointed the aurora disappeared, but I realized I would be very tired in the morning so I packed up and went back to bed. In the morning I examined the shots I took and right away I could see what settings worked best and I was quite impressed with the shots I took.