Northern Lights in Havelte (Holtingerberg) by Ronald Kromkamp

About "Northern Lights in Havelte (Holtingerberg)"

by Ronald Kromkamp

About the artwork

This picture was taken on 12 August at Holtingerberg in the Netherlands.
You can see the northern lights more and more often in the Netherlands.
With a 7artisans 1.8 lens and long shutter speed, I took this photo.
The aurora is predominantly seen as a light glow or moving arcs, beams or curtains of light. Sometimes above the northern horizon is an arc from which rays of light shoot up like searchlights. Very rarely, the aurora displays a flaming character, showing a peculiar vibration and relatively rapid pulsating movement, similar to the dancing of candle flames. Some dancing rays appear to rotate, with one ray shifting slightly to the side and disappearing, to make way for a new ray, which in turn also shifts to the side and disappears, to also make way for a new ray. This en-echelon movement can happen relatively quickly. In and around the geomagnetic zenith, the so-called crown phenomenon can be observed, where the rays appear as if coming from or being pulled towards a single point of flight. Towards the end of an aurora, diffuse-looking islands appear, strongly reminiscent of the artificial illumination of the nighttime cloudy sky over urbanised areas. The aurora is mainly visible at high geographical latitudes. The sun's activity has an 11-year cycle. During that time period, activity increases and then weakens again. The likelihood of auroras is greatest in years with high activity on the sun's surface, which manifests itself in a greater number of sunspots. When such'a sunspot is pointed towards Earth, the charged particles released in the eruption can reach the Earth's atmosphere and cause auroras.