Category Archives: Skies and Stars

Aurora borealis time-lapse video, and a caveat about uploading things to YouTube and other video sites

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I’m sorry this isn’t iPhone enabled (silly that they won’t display Flash content) but I’ll have to work on compatibility another time. I uploaded this video to my blog’s Facebook page but they really destroy the video quality so I wanted to post it where it looks decent.

I’m a firm believer in applying enough bandwidth to make the video look decent in detail. I’d love to put it on YouTube or Vimeo, but there are problems with that. As a result, I’m hosting it myself in Flash Video (FLV) format. This will display on pretty much every device out there EXCEPT my beloved Apple devices – iPod, iPhone, iPad… bummer, but at least I maintain ownership of my content.

What’s that, you say? YouTube and Vimeo assume ownership of your content? Not exactly…but what they DO assume is a perpetual license to keep, use, distribute, and make new videos from your content. Once you upload to them, you’re without any rights whatsoever.

Here’s how you sign your rights away by uploading to YouTube, according to their Terms of Service page:

“However, by submitting Content to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and YouTube’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service. The above licenses granted by you in video Content you submit to the Service terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your videos from the Service. You understand and agree, however, that YouTube may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of your videos that have been removed or deleted. The above licenses granted by you in user comments you submit are perpetual and irrevocable.“ (YouTube Terms of Service page)

Vimeo’s policies are equally disturbing:

“By submitting a video, you grant Vimeo and its affiliates a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license and right to copy, transmit, distribute, publicly perform and display (through all media now known or hereafter created), and make derivative works from your video for the purpose of (i) displaying the video within the Vimeo Service; (ii) displaying the video on third party websites and applications through a video embed or Vimeo’s API subject to your video privacy choices; (iii) allowing other users to play, download, and embed on third party websites the video, subject to your video privacy choices; (iii) promoting the Vimeo Service, provided that you have made the video publicly available; and (iv) archiving or preserving the video for disputes, legal proceedings, or investigations.” (Vimeo Terms of Service Page)

So…have you uploaded something containing yourself, your kids, your friends, or anything else personal to you? Congratulations; you just signed away your rights to it. But it gets even worse; check out these two clauses:


“To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless YouTube, its parent corporation, officers, directors, employees and agents, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from: (i) your use of and access to the Service; (ii) your violation of any term of these Terms of Service; (iii) your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right; or (iv) any claim that your Content caused damage to a third party. This defense and indemnification obligation will survive these Terms of Service and your use of the Service.”

and,

“You will indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Vimeo and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, and agents, from and against all third party actions that: (i) arise from your activities on the Vimeo Service; (ii) assert a violation by you of any term of this Agreement; or (iii) assert that any content you submitted to Vimeo violates any law or infringes any third party right, including any intellectual property or privacy right.”

“Indemnify” means that if you post a video and someone decides to sue you for some reason – that could be that you used an Enya track without license, you showed someone in the video who did not give you permission to post their likeness on the Internet, or somehow otherwise prompted someone else to legal action – not only do you hold YouTube and Vimeo unaccountable, but you also agree to pay their legal expenses if they get sued for hosting your content. Do you have the money to pay for YouTube’s (ie, Google’s) or Vimeo’s legal team?

In the case of the video above, I take it (as with all my photography) very personally. That’s why I typically put those annoying watermarks on my photos; I got tired of seeing them pop up on people’s website or MySpace pages. I have no desire to give Google, Vimeo, or anyone else a legal license to do whatever they want with it. And, although I’m using the music under license, I don’t want to possibly expose myself to some huge corporation’s legal expenses.

By the way, Facebook has similar language but within different parameters (ie, subject to your Privacy settings). When it comes to Pages, which is how my blog operates there, it appears that Facebook makes no such assertions. Otherwise no other corporation would open up a Page there on Facebook because they’re not willing to relinquish their intellectual property rights either. However, if your personal Facebook account is public, so is your data – photos, posts, whatever – and you give them the rights to use them accordingly.

I have posted stuff to YouTube in the past, but not stuff that’s personally important to me. The exception to that would be my tribute to Sergeant Steve Kenner of the Bismarck PD, a video that I wanted to share with the community. When it comes to things like this though, where I want to reserve all rights of ownership and use, I’ve got to host it myself and suffer some compatibility issues. It doesn’t work the best across all platforms, but it remains mine.

Because it’s me…you know it’s gotta have windmills

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I don’t know what my fascination with old windmills is…probably that they’re so photogenic and a good subject, especially when framed against those expansive prairie skies. It stands to reason, then, that I’d be absolutely tickled upon finding one nestled deep within this weekend’s aurora photography setting.

I couldn’t have asked for a better convergence of photo phactors. The light of the full moon, which I feared would work against us, actually performed admirably at lighting the farmstead foreground. Just to make sure things turned out the way I wanted, I also brought my six-D-cell “Louisville Slugger” Mag-Lite flashlight. It ended up coming in handy to dissuade an errant skunk from getting too close as it ambled through the farmyard nearby.

To add to the fun, the auroras really turned it up a notch just as I set up to photograph this old windmill. I took advantage of the whole evening and morning. Trust me…I’ve still got plenty more where this came from. 🙂

Plenty more where this came from

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What do you get when you combine a Planetary K-Index (Kp) of 6.5, three photography buddies, and permission to roam an abandoned farmstead at night? Photos like this one.

Things REALLY got hopping, even enough to overcome the light of the full moon directly overhead. I had multiple cameras going to shoot the event, shooting stills and a time-lapse video I hope to work on over the weekend.

It was REALLY cold out tonight – but once I started getting the good shots, I forgot all about the cold. In fact, that excitement kept me going until 4am! Too bad I expect it to wear off before going to work in a couple of hours… *yawn*

You can expect a lot more of these photos in the near future!

Wide open spaces

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This was the view out the window of my truck as I perused some of the backroads in my ol’ stompin’ grounds a couple of weekends ago – right before some much-needed snow arrived. I’ve changed my tune a bit; when I took this photo I was pining for some deep snow, but now I’m quite ready for spring. Bring on the green grass, the warm breeze, the long evenings…it is time.

Winter didn’t exactly go as planned, but my little guys did eventually get to build a couple of little snowmen this week. They’re both old enough to ride little bikes now, and are expressing a desire to go stargazing so I anticipate big things this summer! I can’t wait to get started.

Into the wind…the solar wind, that is

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Upon returning to the Bizzo following a family funeral in Dickinson, I settled in and decided to check the arsenal of websites I use to attempt my aurora borealis predictions. Things looked promising, and I made a mental note to head out for a look-see after a while. Before long, however, I got a call from a friend who was already out and about: the Northern Lights were blazing!

When my best friend and I arrived on the scene, the colors were pretty faint and uniform. That gave me time to wander around the field in an attempt to find an angle that provided what I was looking for. The windmill didn’t want to cooperate, as its head was facing the wrong direction at first. A small breeze apparently corrected that later.

Things ramped up for a bit, painting a sharper wall of light across the northern sky. Northern Lights can take on many permutations; dancing spikes of light, cascading sheets, and sometimes winding bands of glowing green that snake across the sky. This happened to be the long band variety. After a while, things appeared to wane, and it was getting cold…so I decided to pack up the gear.

Apparently that’s what the sky was waiting for, because as soon as we began to drive away the intensity flared and we started to get some additional colors and spikes. I hadn’t made it far down the road, so I whipped around and bolted over to the previous position to grab a quick few shots. This time some reds began to make an appearance as well as the light began to dance more brightly.

Finally – some spikes of color began to appear amid the horizon’s green and blue aura! They were elusive and short-lived, but they were there. I spent a few more minutes in the cold but otherwise perfect night, and the sky began to settle. Hiking back to the truck for the night, I got the gear stowed and checked the numbers one more time.

The way things were looking, I figured that there was a chance that things would flare up again around 3am as they’re known to do. It was approaching midnight, however, and I wasn’t about to sit out in the cold and find out. The plan was to head home, check on things before bed, and make the call there. In this case I decided to go to bed instead of back out into the night, predicting that the skies were going to settle. It turned out to be the right call; things dropped off after that.

I have a link on my Northern Lights page (link in the upper right column) for each of the many sites I use to “throw in the hopper” and make the call on whether I figure chasing after Northern Lights is worthwhile. It’s a soft science at best. In this case, one particular model was accurate and another was not. In other cases, a different model will make the correct prediction. It really ends up coming down to gut instinct: trying to determine which numbers to trust. Yesterday’s solar wind blast was expected, but it was not expected to cause any auroras. One blip on one set of data is what made me suspicious, and it turned out to be the right call.

Since I’m a husband and Daddy these days, I can’t be bolting out of town every night in the hopes of getting a lucky encounter with the auroras, so I’m trying to see if I can get a better sense of when such a trip is worthwhile. Last night my instincts proved correct.

Rabbit in the moon, and the terminator

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Okay, I’ll admit there is no rabbit in this photo, so don’t bother looking. That was just a hat-tip to the song playing in my iTunes right now, “Rabbit in the Moon” by Scott Hardkiss. There is, however, one really cool feature of this photo. Did you pick it out? In the upper left, right along the terminator, is an illuminated rim of a crater that stands out from the rest.

The terminator is not Arnold “GIT TO DA CHOPPA” Schwarzenegger when we’re talking astronomy; rather, it’s the line between day and night, light and dark, the illuminated and non-illuminated part of a moon or planet. Notice the nice, gentle gradient of the terminator’s edge…and how it’s boldly interrupted by the rim of the crater. Cool, huh?

I took this photo in the late afternoon, some might say early evening. It’s the best time to photograph the moon because the sky behind it isn’t dark. While properly exposing for the detail in the moon, you still get some color in the sky surrounding it. At night all you get is a bold white or gold disk in a sea of black. I suppose that’s fine if that’s what you’re going for, but I prefer to show a little bit of blue.

Missed ’em

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This is what I was hoping for last night; however, I spent the evening dozing off with an ice pack while waiting for an unsettled atmosphere to suddenly flare up. Horsing around with my boys, I managed to acquire a huge, swelling bruise that I needed to tame before any late night excursions. Thankfully, it worked…but I did end up sacking out for the night.

This photo is from the last time Northern Lights abounded in North Dakota: 2005. It’s partially responsible for me getting a digital camera in the first place. I spent the previous solar maximum in the 1980s hanging out at Double Ditch with friends while breathtaking displays filled the sky overhead, and I wanted to capture the moment. Then, as if my purchase had single-handedly extinguished the sun, the solar activity period waned and I’ve waited ever since. I only got a handful of Aurora Borealis photos before things quieted down. Needless to say, I’ve been waiting as anxiously as all those scientists who’ve been scratching their heads and wondering why the solar maximum has taken so long to return!

Hopefully, now that I’ve almost totally ditched this head cold and managed to bring down the swelling of my brand new shiner, I’ll be able to hit some of my favorite spots and put to use some of the best tricks I’ve learned in astrophotography over the past six years. Naturally I’ll be treating you to the results as soon as they manifest – I hate posting recycled content!

Moon upon the left

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So there I was: blazing down a gravel road at sunset, working my way back toward town. The sun had descended past the horizon, with only the purples and pinks in the eastern sky remaining for another couple of minutes. It’s a magical, fleeting moment that occurs after the brilliant, blazing light of the sunset has passed…and it’s a marvelous window of photographic opportunity in its own right.

That’s when I saw this sign, locked up the brakes, and hopped out into the ditch with my camera and tripod. I had to wander a bit to get just the right angle, but it wasn’t difficult. I had just enough time to try a few exposures before the light began to fade.

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know that I often like to make musical references in the title of my posts. In this case, I’m referring to the song by folk singer David Mallet. Here are a couple of lyrical samples:

There’s a moon upon the left,
And there’s a star upon the right.
There’s a nightingale a singin’
To the wondrous summer night.
There are gentle deer a grazin’
In the meadow with no fright.
And there’s no past and there’s no future, only now.
We have chanced upon this fragile scene somehow.

…

Now there’s a cottontail a’watchin’,
O’er his lady as she sleeps.
I’m a lover of tradition,
Here’s my heart it’s yours to keep.
Won’t you take me as I’m giving,
We’ll be lovers in our flight.
Cause there’s a moon upon the left,
And there’s a star upon the right.


The days are already getting longer and even though (presumably) we’ll have a cold snap to brave our way through before winter’s over, those calm moonlit nights are just around the corner – perfect for those hand-holding walks with my sweetie. Soon, I tell myself…soon.

I was getting really bored with being able to feel my fingers, so…

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I decided to hike up to the top of Fort Lincoln with a friend for some shots of the decorated blockhouse! The fort to the east had been equipped with Christmas lights, acting as a beacon to those traveling south on Highway 1806 or across the river in the Fox Island area.

I have a pass for the park, but not a key for the padlock on the gate at the bottom of the hill…so it was time to walk. The walk up the hill was exhilarating, with the brisk winter air and the workout of trudging through the shallow snow most of the way. I was amazed at how clear the sky was and how crisp and bright the stars appeared as a result! Once we got up top, the breeze picked up and the temperatures seemed to drop. We had time for a few quick shots before deciding to work our way back down to the truck.

Of course, I had to stop for one other shot on the way back: the constellation Orion over the southwestern blockhouse. You can spot the constellation most easily by locating the “belt” of the hunter, which is formed by three very bright stars right in a row. This constellation doesn’t appear in the North Dakota skies until fall, peaking right around now, and will disappear slowly over the southern horizon as we approach summer. I used my mammoth MagLite, the model fueled by six D-cell batteries, to paint the blockhouse with light.

Now I’m back at home, snug and warm, and had a couple of satisfying photos as a result. Now it’s time to snarf some Pizza Rolls in honor of Jeno Paulucci and go to bed. As I will say every day until Monday, Merry Christmas!

They’re back! The Northern Lights, that is

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Thanks to my network of spies, my cell phone vibrated my pillow tonight and set a great sequence of events in motion. My wife heard the phone, answered the text, woke me up, and I was on my way to catch the auroras before they faded! Naturally I headed out of town as quickly as I could after picking up my best friend.

Taking great photos of the sky ironically requires a good foreground object to put things into the proper perspective. In this case I found one of my favorite old windmills. I love these trademark North Dakota artifacts, but they do come with one caveat:

They don’t always point in the direction you’d prefer. This shot had some great aurora activity in the background, but the head of the windmill isn’t really facing in a photogenic direction. Sure, I could Photoshop it, but that’s not how I roll.

That’s more like it. I had to stumble around in the dark for a bit and try different angles around the area to see which one presented the best angle. Of course, once I moved in a certain direction, the auroras flared up in the other. I’m so accustomed to this taunting by the sky that I’ve actually developed a little bit of patience!

As auroras go, tonight’s weren’t even that dramatic. I’m told there was a lot more “spike” activity before I dragged my tired butt out into position. I don’t care, though…it’s literally been YEARS since I’ve been able to take decent Northern Lights photos due to the solar minimum. I’ve often joked that I single-handedly extinguished the auroras by buying digital cameras with the intent of photographing them! Now it seems that a frustratingly dormant period of solar inactivity is coming to a close, and I’ll be ready to capitalize on it.