NOTE: Click on the thumbnails to see larger versions.

After seeing spectacular auroras during sea trips to the Arctic in 2014 and 2016, I wanted to go back and get some photos. On land, it’s possible to get nice photos of auroras by taking long exposures with a camera mounted on a tripod. I wanted to find an approach that would work on a moving ship. The DJI Osmo+, which appears on the right in this photo, seemed to be a possible solution. While testing this hand-held device by moving my arm to simulate motion on a ship, I was encouraged to see that the gimbal appeared to keep the camera aimed in the same direction. The camera on the Osmo+ isn’t very good, but it does allow long exposures. I decided to try it during a sea trip to the north of Alaska in the fall of 2017. I obtained the photos that follow during a partly cloudy night with strong auroras. After the promising tests before the trip, I was surprised to see star tracks in the photos, as in this example. In the versions that follow, the star tracks (and thus the stars themselves) were removed using the dust-and-scratches filter in Photoshop.

Later on that trip, there was a clear sky with strong auroras, but the Moon was a problem. Some of the photos from that night follow.



The following is the nicest aurora photo from that trip.



I was disappointed by the performance of the Osmo+ during the sea trip in 2017, but cloudy skies and moonlight limited my opportunities. I decided it was worth another try. In the fall of 2022, I made a trip to the Harstad, which is located in the ‘aurora belt’ in northern Norway. I used the Osmo+ to obtain the photos that follow from land. Once again, the Osmo+ wasn’t very effective at compensating for motion.



My primary objective during a trip to Harstad in the fall of 2023 was to obtain nice photos of auroras. I obtained the photos that follow with a Nikon Z6ii camera and a NIKKOR 20 mm f/1.8 lens.



I returned to Harstad for another sea trip in the fall of 2024. The Kp index was very high on some nights, and the auroras were the most colorful I have ever seen. I got the photos that follow on the night before the sea trip began.



During the first night of the sea trip, the ship was fairly steady while passing through fjords near Tromsø. I mounted the camera on a tripod on the deck of the ship and obtained the following photos, which came out better than I would have expected on a moving ship.



Near the end of the sea trip (to the northwest of the northern tip of Norway), the most colorful auroras I have ever seen (colors clearly visible to the naked eye) appeared through breaks in the clouds. I obtained the photos that follow with the camera mounted on a tripod on the deck of the ship. Once again, I used Photoshop to remove the star tracks, such as the ones that appear in this example.



I obtained the photos that follow after the ship returned to Harstad. At one point, the auroras became very intense, which caused some of the photos to be overexposed.



After the sea trip in 2024, I obtained the DJI RS 4, which appears to the left of the Osmo+ in this photo. The RS 4 works on the same principle as the OSMO+ but is vastly superior to that device. The Osmo+ comes with a mediocre camera, which is the only option with that device. The RS 4 is a much more substantial device that can be used with a high-quality camera. During testing with the RS 4 and the Nikon (again moving my arm to simulate motion on a ship), I obtained long exposures of the night sky without star tracks, which suggests that this setup will make it possible to obtain high-quality aurora photos on a moving ship.