Since the new housing development started going in across the road, I've been looking forward to climbing up to the top of the new hill surrounding the stormwater management pond. It looked like it might be a pretty good place to go observing or set up a telescope. This March there was a solar storm, and there was a chance to see auroras down in Southern Ontario. I thought it would be a good chance to test out the new hill, so I brought my camera and tripod up to take test shots.

I couldn't see any aurora, but I took some long exposure photographs just in case the camera could pick something up that I couldn't see with my own eyes. This was one of the photos I took. It turns out I had missed the light show by a couple of hours. It had happened while I was putting the kids to bed. However, I got this photo of some clouds, and some lens flares from the street lights.

Overall, I think the new hill is going to be a good place to watch the sky from, even though there are a bunch of bright street lights. We will have to see how the view changes once they build the townhouses they are planning to put in the empty spot in the middle of this photo. It's extremely conventient to have a stable spot to set up a telescope or camera with nearly a full view of the sky, right across the street!

Technical Details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + 17-40L at 17mm, ISO 3200, f/8 for 30 seconds.