The Aurora Starring Steve

"Steve," the Strange Auroral Arc (Spherical Fish-Eye Projection)

I’ve assembled a music video of time-lapse clips and still images of the fine aurora of September 27, with Steve making a cameo appearance.

The indicators this night didn’t point to a particularly great display, but the sky really performed.

The Northern Lights started low across the north, in a very active classic arc. The display then quietened.

But as it did so, and as is his wont, the isolated arc that has become known as Steve appeared across the south in a sweeping arc. The Steve arc always defines the most southerly extent of the aurora.

Steve faded, but then the main display kicked up again and began to fill the sky with a post-sub-storm display of pulsing rays and curtains shooting up to the zenith. Only real-time video can really capture the scene as the eye sees it, but the fast time-lapses I shot do a decent job of recording the effect of whole patches of sky turning on and off.

The display ended with odd pulsing arcs in the south.

Here’s the video, available in 4K resolution.

Alberta Aurora (Sept. 27, 2017) from Alan Dyer on Vimeo.

Expand to fill the screen for the best view.

Thanks for looking!

3 Replies to “The Aurora Starring Steve”

Thank you for this, Alan. It was amazing and I loved watching it.
Having recently moved from Alberta to Vancouver Island, the Aurora is something I definitely miss about Alberta.
I appreciate you bringing it to me!