For the last couple of weeks I’ve been using the new Nikon Z 135mm f/1.8 Plena lens. The optical design of this lens gives a bigger image which results in better corner performance. For me as an astrophotographer this is a really good thing since the lens produces point shaped stars all the way out to the corners. On most lenses you get quite bad stars in the corners resulting in a smaller field of view since you need to crop the image. The build quality is nothing but stellar and the lens handles really well with its weight and balance. The focal length of 135mm is quite useful in the night ..read more

As an astrophotographer I’m always keeping an eye on the sky to see whats going on. But it’s hard, if not impossible, to constantly keep an eye out for Northern Lights, meteors or just knowing if the sky is clear or not. For several years I’ve had an idea of building an allsky camera that always keeps an eye on the sky for me, but I never got around to build one until now. I started the build project in late August by ordering the camera I’ve found suited my needs the best, a ZWO ASI178MC. The camera arrived in mid September and since then I’ve been building and testing my ideas step by step ..read more

Today is the December solstice, marking an astronomical beginning of summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the north. This photo was taken on the 17th of December 2022 at 12:30 local time, when the Sun was at its highest position in the sky here at latitude 63°N.  To the left you can see the city of Östersund and to the right is Frösön, a big island close to the city. Above Frösön you can see a small cloud of smoke leaving the top of the island. That’s snow being produced by snow cannons at the local ski slope, Gustavsbergsbacken.  These tiny ice crystals produced by sn ..read more

Wow, just wow! Last night’s Northern Lights was one of the most beautiful auroras I’ve seen. Such activity and fast moving corona is not that common so I’m glad I stayed up all night waiting.    Here’s a short video I made from last night showing the Northern Lights in real-time. As you can see in a couple of clips, the activity in the corona is really fast, it looks so surreal seeing something like this in reality.    All the conditions was perfect, almost no wind and temperatures just a few degrees below zero. The moonlight maybe was a bit to strong but it helped out ..read more

During long periods of cloudy weather it can be really frustrating as a astrophotographer waiting for the sky to clear up. Over the years I’ve learn how to handle these long down times. It’s a good time to look back on your old work and see if you can do something new with old images. Or you could spend your time creating your own space art in the comfort of your home or studio. I’ve seen some photos of smoke earlier and really like the shapes and structures that take form in the smoke. I thought it could be a great idea to use that smoke and maybe create some space nebulas of my own. A ..read more

The past weekend I was down in Ruhpolding, Germany, to cover the Biathlon World Cup. This was my first sporting event working with my new Nikon Z9 camera so I finally got to test the camera in real action. Overall I’m super happy with the camera, the autofocus is just amazing when it comes to 3D tracking athletes. Also the image quality is super great, even at higher ISOs. The 45Mp resolution allowing you to really crop in close on the action if needed. Anyway, the most exciting test was the one I did with the 120 frames per second mode. The Nikon Z9 can shoot 11Mp jpegs stills at 120 fps. S ..read more

Today I did a ISO comparison with the Nikon Z9 compared to the Nikon Z6II and Nikon D850.  I’ve been using my old D850 a lot for astrophotography and have been very pleased with its ISO performance.  When I got my Nikon Z6II about a year ago I found it to outperform my Nikon D850 regarding ISO. That was expected since it has a lower resolution. So now that I’ve got my Nikon Z9 I thought it would be interesting to see how it performs against both the Nikon D850 and the Nikon Z6II. I did 4 exposures with each camera, each exposure was 60 seconds long and was taken using ISO 1600, 320 ..read more

Natten mellan den 27 och 28 juli 2019 var jag ute för att fotografera och filma månens uppgång bakom Arctura i Östersund. Min setup var två kameror, en Nikon D500 med mitt Nikon AF-S 600mm f/4 D IF-ED II  som filmade i 4K, samt min Nikon D850 med Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4E PF ED VR och Nikon AF-S TC-20E III telekonverter för stillbilder. När man filmar i 4K med Nikon D500 får man en brännviddsförlängning på 2,25 gånger vilket gör att mitt 600mm objektiv får en brännvidd på 1 350mm. Ett par minuter in i månuppgången såg jag ett mycket tunt moln i förhandsgranskningen på min kamera. Jag vi ..read more

Förra veckan höll jag en workshop i norrskensfoto i Abisko tillsammans med Zoom Fotoresor. Totalt var det 12 deltagare i gruppen och vi fick se norrsken två kvällar av tre. Programmet var upplagt så att vi på dagtid gick igenom våra bilder tillsammans. Jag berättade hur man fotograferar i mörker och lite tips och tips på vägen för att få bästa sätt fånga norrsken och natthimmel. Första kvällen åkte vi upp till Aurora Sky Station. Resan upp till stationen var helt magisk. En vindstilla kväll i ett månbelyst landskap och med ett dansande norrsken ovanför våra huvuden. Den andra kvällen hade vi ..read more