Red Aurora Over Abisko

From the photographer: “It is 1st December 2023 in Abisko, a very small but charming village in the north of Sweden mainly known for its majestic Northern Lights displays. The Moon rose early in the evening, and even though it still hangs low in the horizon, it is already casting shadows all over the place.

The forecast looks very promising with high chances of south-looking auroras, so I decided to drive towards the west banks of the Torneträsk lake, hoping to frame them hovering over the town and the Lapporten, the iconic valley which lays just behind. A photo I’ve planned for a long while but never had the proper conditions to acquire.

Having said that, there is no sign of Aurora yet, but I like preparing my compositions in advance, so I reach the location with some time to spare. Thirty minutes later the sky would give me one of the best shows of my life in the Arctic, with red hues clearly visible to the naked eyes. The image, framed to the south, shows a gigantic stream of Northern Lights dancing over Abisko, over a beautifully aurorae-lit pattern of ice in the foreground, courtesy of the -30C degrees nights we have recently had.”

Technical details:
Canon EOS R5 + Samyang XP 14mm f/2,4, Exposure time: 4s, f/2,8, ISO 4000