Reason for Guidelines.

Guidelines for Aurora hunters helps us develop good habits. These good habits allow us to work together more effectively. Now that many people have cell phones capable of seeing auroras we are starting to have over crowding issues. If everyone is doing their own thing, without thought for others. It becomes like the wild west with no rules. This is when accidents will happen. Trespassing happens, people make costly mistakes. and people miss shots they want.

These Guidelines are a check list. If you do things the same way every time, you brain will develop a routine that you do without thinking about. If we are all following the same guidelines. Then we all develop the same habits. In times when we are over excited about seeing auroras this will kick in, and prevent us from creating dangerous situations, avoid ruining other peoples photos and help you do everything right so you miss nothing

Basic Guidelines

1.     Your eyes will take several minutes to adjust to the darkness, so turn off your car lights as soon as you park. Wait a few minutes before venturing away from your car to give your eyes time to adjust. This makes sure you are not flooding light into other peoples pictures. Most cars work best by turning your headlights straight off and then turn off your car. This will turn off the time delay.

2.     Set your focus by your car. This way, you can use a flashlight without disturbing others who may be shooting. Double-check focus Taking a picture then enlarging an image on the back of your camera to ensure the stars are tack sharp. Not all infinity spots are spot on, you will need to test your lens. Also if you carry painters tap, put it on side of your lens it will prevent it from turning out of focus.

3.     Set your white balance, shutter speed, f-stop, and ISO before leaving your car. This way, you can make minor adjustments in the field without struggling. A shutter speed of 20- 30 seconds, the lowest f-stop possible, and an ISO of 1600 are good starting points. If you need more light, raise your ISO. If you need less light turn down ISO. If your stars are a Comma then reduce your shutter speed. There is a rule called 500 rule to determine ideal setting for your lens.

4.     Use a red light when walking to avoid disturbing your night vision. However, use a regular flashlight around other people—normal flashlight light can be corrected in editing, but red light is nearly impossible to fix.

5.     Keep all flashlights and headlamps pointed at the ground while walking so you do not bother other people with your light. Aim your light away from anyone you pass to avoid disturbing their night vision or photography.

6.     Walk behind people, not in front of them, in the dark. Cameras require long exposures at night, and they may be in the middle of a shot.

7.     Be aware of your surroundings so you do not set up in front of someone else. Some photographers may not mind an aurora hunter in their shot, but most do.

8.     If you are near other people and need to use a flashlight, call out first and wait for confirmation that shutters are closed before turning it on.

9.     Learn your camera well enough that you do not need a flashlight to adjust your settings. If you know where your buttons are and how to change settings, you can train yourself to do that by touch. LCD screen is bright enough to see what you are changing. Also you may want to reduce brightness of LCD screen on the back of your camera. Left in daylight setting it will make you think your image is more exposed than it is.

10. Make sure you research how to set up histogram in your camera. Learn to depend on it because it always tells you if you are exposed properly. If the hill in your histogram is all the way to the left , then you are to dark. If it is middle to the right then chances are you are to bright. Though my one tip is to shoot 1 stop overexposed at night. You can draw down your highlights a stop in editing, your shadows up a stop. This gives you a wider gradient that is more level between shadows and hightlights.

11. Practice safety in the field. Never leave your wingman until everyone is back in their car and engines are started.

Some Basic Safety

1. Park on the same side of the road you are going to. People have been killed crossing the road at night. Avoid doing that at all costs.
2. Get a simple reflective vest with pockets at a hardware. This can assure you are seen at night in parking lots or by roads. Pockets can double at way to carry batteries, cards and keys.
3. NEVER park on both sides of the road. This creates a tunnel that cars must travel through and leaves them no where to swerve if someone steps out in front of them.
4. Respect Park Rules if you are in park respect the rules. If you become a proble by ignoring rules, others will follow and then parks will close areas at night because people aren’t respecting the park.
5. Respect Private Property don’t go walking down on private property without permission.
6. Don’t walk out into fields without permission. they are private property and you could be costing a farmer money.
7. Leave Handicapped parking spaces for handicapped hunters. We do have hunters that do have handicapped and there isn’t enough safe places for them to do, Don’t take space away from the.
8. Park in designated parking spots. don’t park on the grass. don’t park in front of signage like stop signs or park notifications.
9. Plan ahead with more than one location, so if one place is full there are other places to go nearby.
10. If you are traveling a distance, use your groups to try to find a local to meet up with. You are safer using a buddy system and safer with someone that knows the local area.
    1. Michigan Aurora Hunters https://www.facebook.com/groups/827471430698956
    2. Wisconsin Aurora Hunters https://www.facebook.com/groups/176764332892448
    3. North American Dark Skies https://www.facebook.com/groups/Unitedstatesdarkskies