Simviation Forums

Good evening all...

I tried a few other times and settings in FSX to see if I could capture the Northern Lights.
I got lot's of shots showing the pink or reddish colour so I posted two.

FSX and Vista
FS Water Configurator set to Night Water and Glass Water
Aircraft: DeHavilland DHC-3 "Otter" PZL
Location: North of Tromso "ENTC" Norway
Settings:

Goodly morning all....

The DHC-3 Otter in the above shots was at cruise about two hundred feet above the water...

The pink reddish colour was all to the north of Tromso like a large cloud. 
There were no clouds...CAVU...clear air, visibility unlimited so I think that is the resemblance of the Northern Lights in FSX.

I am hoping that the new Microsoft Flight program will replicate the Northern Lights a little better...

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

Hi Doug,

Taking shots at night is quite difficult. On my home computer it's bright enough to see the details, but on my office computer I cannot see the colors so precisely. Night shots are for me the most difficult shots to take. In general, I tend to avoid them, because even after a lot of reseach, I can almost never get any interesting angle or "clear" vision...

In the shots above I have spotted some issues. The most obvious one in on the virtual cockpit shot. The shot itself is well composed, but that plane had a transparency issue which masks the prop blur, and that's a little bit disturbing for the quality of the shot.

Still, the idea for the shot is good, you just have to choose the plane more carefully, depending on how its virtual cockpit looks like.

For the first shot, I don't have much to say. I like how you put the plane aside to show more of the sky and stars. Such a shot would also look very good at dawn or dusk, with a more colorful sky and water reflections.

Finally... I don't see any northern lights in your shots. Northern lights are supposed to be green or something like that. I never saw them in the sim, but I've never been looking for them either, to be honnest

Thanks Stephane...

Excellent comments and advice as always...

When I was doing the flight there was a half moon shape of red or purple just above the water with stars showing through.
It was only in the one location North East to North West.
I dropped the aircraft down to about 200 feet above the water to try and catch the colour effect which was still visible when in flight.

I am not sure what happened when I took the shot as I paused first then released and did the shot.

The Northern Lights are many colours, intermittent but again perhaps FSX has not a good portrayal of them...

Again thanks for the welcomed advice...

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug