France’s Nicolas Lefaudeux captured this view of an auroral band over Finland in 2017, winning top honours in the 2018 Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition’s aurorae category. According to the award caption, “a hazy, subtle auroral band is leisurely drifting across the sky providing an unusual perspective with faint bands appearing to radiate from a vanishing point, like a road disappearing over the horizon. As the aurora glided overhead, it made the photographer feel like he was driving a spaceship about to reach light speed toward the Big Dipper. This view lasted less than a minute.” This was Lefaudeux’s second prize-winning photo in the 2018 competition.
Location: Sirkka, Finland, 30 March 2017. Equipment: Sony ILCE-7S2 camera, 20-mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 2000, 3.2-second exposure.
