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Aurora Borealis

Due to the Sun's 11-year periodical activity maximum, Aurora Borealis has appeared unusually far south during 1999 and 2000. At least three times the beautiful glow has been seen in Linköping. The glow isn't very visible when you're close to street lights, but can be observed easily from a fairly dark place with little or no street lights. These photos from two different occasions (November 1999 and April 2000) were shot from a rather light-polluted field. The images below have been digitally enhanced through increasing contrast in separate color channels. This way the image gets a more varied and balanced color, and is overall much more appealing. 

Images from November 1999

All I can remember from that night was that around 9 p.m. I opened the front door and looked to the north-east. First I thought the faint glow were ordinary clouds. Then I could see the characteristic drapes and concluded that it was actually Aurora Borealis I was observing. I ran down to a nearby field with my Pentax camera with a 50 mm f/1.7 lens and Kodak 800 film. The Aurora wasn't very bright, and the color wasn't very fantastic either, although some faint red glow could be seen later on. The glow lasted not more than an hour. 
Author: Jakob Selbing 
Equipment: 50 mm Pentax. 
Date: November 1999.
Author: Jakob Selbing 
Equipment: 50 mm Pentax. 
Date: November 1999. 
Author: Jakob Selbing 
Equipment: 50 mm Pentax. 
Date: November 1999.

Images from April 2000

This night my friend Patrik Brynolfsson called me at around 9 or 10 p.m. and said he thought he could see some Aurora Borealis. I opened the front door and looked to the sky, and yes, there was something there! I ran down to the nearby field with two cameras, one with a 50 mm lens and the other with a 28 mm lens. I took a lot of photos that night. The streak of Aurora was really bright and was actually right above us, and it covered almost the entire sky! With an Aurora this wide, I just wished I had had a fish-eye lens! The color was mostly green and red (that red color was very awesome to see, it looked so unreal!). One could actually observe how the glowing drapes slowly changed in structure and brightness. This particular Aurora was seen as far south as Germany.  
Author: Jakob Selbing 
Equipment: 28 mm Pentax. 
Date: April 2000.
Author: Jakob Selbing 
Equipment: 28 mm Pentax. 
Date: April 2000. 
Author: Jakob Selbing 
Equipment: 28 mm Pentax. 
Date: April 2000.
Author: Jakob Selbing 
Equipment: 28 mm Pentax. 
Date: April 2000.