Thierry Legault has captured spectacular views of the Aurora Borealis from Norway, filmed in real time."> Thierry Legault has captured spectacular views of the Aurora Borealis from Norway, filmed in real time."> Thierry Legault has captured spectacular views of the Aurora Borealis from Norway, filmed in real time.">

Watch Fast and Furious All-sky Aurora Filmed in Real Time

By Nancy Atkinson - December 11, 2015 at 9:01 AM UTC | Observing
aurora-legault.jpg

If seeing the Northern or Southern Lights hasn't been crossed off your bucket list yet, this video is the next best thing to seeing the aurora live. Astrophotographer extraordinaire

Thierry Legault

has captured spectacular views of the Aurora Borealis from Norway, filmed in real time.

"I was in Norway in early November," Thierry told Universe Today, "this was my 5th stay and really the best one, with incredible auroras. At moments they were so large and fast that we didn't know where to look." He added they were "totally hypnotic."

The 16-minute video includes 6 of the best sequences Legault captured. "I included the start and finish of the sequences to show their behavior to people who have never witnessed them," he said. "The auroras seem to be alive, sometimes like snakes or rivers."

Legault used a Sony Alpha 7s, which he says is the only camera able to record video like this in such lighting. The video is recorded at 25 frames a second.

For the best view of the video, switch to full HD mode (1080p) and full screen.

Legault has been going to Norway annually to see the aurora.

Here are the views he captured last year.

See more of Legault's work at

his website

. He has technical pages there with advice for capturing the night sky. He provides more details and tips in his excellent book,

Astrophotography.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com