Heres a 360° panorama of the odd isolated auroral arc that has become known as “Steve,” here to the left as a pink and white band, across the south, with the main auroral oval to the north at right, with its more normal oxygen green arc and upper red and magenta tints, also from atomic oxygen.
The Steve arc seems to be a thermal emission from hot flowing gas rather than from precipitating electrons. But his origin and nature is still mysterious.
This night, September 27, 2017, the Steve arc appeared for only about 20 minutes, from 10:45 pm MDT pm, as the main display hit a lull in activity. The display later grew to cover the sky with a post-sub-storm flickering display at the zenith and to the south. Steve is always well south of the main oval, and usually appears only when the main aurora is not very active. We seem to be ideally located o the Canadian Prairies for sighting Steve, as we often get the main aurora to our north, placing Steve overhead or to our south.
The 6-day Moon is just setting at the bottom of the summer Milky Way. The Pleiades is rising at far right.
This is a 360° panorama made of 6 segments, each with the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 lens at f/1.8 in portrait orienation, and at 60° spacings. Each exposure was 10 seconds at f/1.8 and ISO 2500 with the Nikon D750. Shot from home on a mild September night.
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