Aurorae (still images), Second Place

Second place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Aurorae (still images): Northern light dragon over Ersfjordbotn/Norway, by Rainer Sparenberg, Germany.

Aurorae often display waving curtain-like patterns where arcs or bands form moving curls, folds, or even spirals. These irregular shapes mirror the small-scale structure of Earth's magnetic field interacting with charged particle flows. Although the full Moon illuminates both the landscape and the night sky, the aurora is easily visible, which demonstrates that it can be a very bright and colourful phenomenon.