How do I get a photo like this?

[i love being a mommy!]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=...=1&theater

I know it's hard to get the colors when you don't live near the poles but is it possible to get something like this in the states? I live in northern ca.

What would your settings be?

[Barbara]

If you go to certain areas in Alaska, it may be possible. You can definitely see some fantastic stars at higher elevations and darker areas in general (like in the Rocky Mountains), but I've never seen anything like this in person.

You'd need just the right angle and as little unnatural light as possible. It's hard to get any photos like this in many places across the U.S. because of all the light saturation from buildings, street lamps, cars lights, etc.

[Matt]

You get photos like that by creating a composite image.


It looks like someone took a photo from a nebula, maybe a Hubble image, and put it with a night sky shot. The aurora is very bright, so there is now way that the stars behind it would be bright enough to shine through, let alone outshine the aurora.

Here is what you can do in southern California, Joshua Tree to be specific:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocshooter/9503545960/

And that was just my first time out doing it.

You need a very dark sky, away from any city lights. Then you need a tripod, a dSLR (or SLR), and a wide-ish lens. Here is a great tutorial on how to do astrophotography:
https://vimeo.com/16833554

[Christopher]

That isn't the aurora, that's photoshopped photo of a nebula.