Aurora in Alaska

[Jim in Florida]

I'm making a trip to Fairbanks at the end of March to (hopefully) photograph the northern lights. I'm thinking of taking my S2 for daytime activity and curious if anyone has experience taking drone footage under the northern lights. From what I understand, if the lights are real active you can read by them. Would that be enough light for the S2 to fly?

Any information is appreciated!

Jim

 

[DroneGuy007]

I'm making a trip to Fairbanks at the end of March to (hopefully) photograph the northern lights. I'm thinking of taking my S2 for daytime activity and curious if anyone has experience taking drone footage under the northern lights. From what I understand, if the lights are real active you can read by them. Would that be enough light for the S2 to fly?

Any information is appreciated!

Jim

Hello Jim. From my experience there would
not be enough light. If there is enough light for the S2 to fly then the lights will not be out.

 

[RiverEagle]

There are videos of folks flying their Skydio a bit after sunset (and one was posted here recently that was pretty dark where it was zipping around trees in the woods) so it's possible. Only one way to find out!

(In the comments section of the above video, the pilot said "[...] initially it didn’t want to take off, I had to move to a place with a bit more light to take off. For the route, I kept it at a least 1 m from trees and branches to avoid the anti-collision system to kick in. In those lighting conditions, it probably doesn’t see the smaller branches.")

Ray

 

[Jim in Florida]

That's pretty impressive. I was thinking of just elevated shots, not going through trees. We'll see what happens in March.

Jim

 

[RiverEagle]

That's pretty impressive. I was thinking of just elevated shots, not going through trees. We'll see what happens in March.

Jim

Look forward to seeing how it turns out!

 

[DroneGuy007]

That's pretty impressive. I was thinking of just elevated shots, not going through trees. We'll see what happens in March.

Jim

Jim in Alaska if there is any daylight the lights will not be out. It has to be complete darkness. Maybe look at getting a DJI Mini2 so you don't break the bank and can fly at night.

 

[mswlogo]

Part of the reason I wanted to get a drone originally was to try and catch the Aurora in NH.
I've seen folks get it with long exposures on the ground. I started with the Mavic 3, but that thing was such a disaster and I returned it. But after studying the Skydio 2 I decided that would be more fun in general.
I was thinking of Mavic Air 2S if I want to get back to my original plan I'll still be way ahead vs Mavic 3.
But I really don't want to deal with DJI ever again.

 

[Jim in Florida]

Jim in Alaska if there is any daylight the lights will not be out. It has to be complete darkness. Maybe look at getting a DJI Mini2 so you don't break the bank and can fly at night.

I was referring to the light from the aurora itself, not daylight. Granted, it would need to be a pretty strong aurora.

 

[DroneGuy007]

I was referring to the light from the aurora itself, not daylight. Granted, it would need to be a pretty strong aurora.

Yes, they are called the lights if you are local to Alaska. The lights are the Aurora when I refer to the lights.