SF to Paris in 2 Minutes | Hacker News Reader

SF to Paris in 2 Minutes

boltron.com

97 pointsnimz42 comments

That was pretty incredible, I've never seen the northern lights from a plane.

Also, thank you for choosing music that was not some airy/indie ambient song.

I was wondering if that's something common to see, or if the camera might be picking up light in a less visible spectrum.

It's not uncommon - I see them occasionally on the SFO to LHR night flights. The photos here are very good, better than I've ever seen with the naked eye, but that might be because you can adjust the exposure with a camera.

Is this for reals? I never knew that was possible.

Absolutely - in fact, I saw them last Friday. Depending on your airline / how late it is the captain may put an announcement out about it.

If you're on an east bound transatlantic red-eye you want to be on the left hand side of the plane, but I think you also have a chance of seeing them on domestic Canadian / Alaskan flights that go far enough north.

I hope this gets clarified by someone with more experience, but I believe one issue is planes are frequently diverted to more southerly routes during solar eruptions and times when the northern lights are particularly strong/vivid due to the increased levels of radiation exposure for those at high altitude. So you don't lose all observations but the best ones probably get missed.

It's funny you say that about the music... (in fact, I seriously can't tell at this point if that was sarcasm) -- because the music was produced apparently by Air France, and 'airy/indie ambient' is precisely the genre one could describe Air France's music being.

(I personally love 'airy/indie ambient' music myself. :) Especially Air France's, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ADxybVy5Ls and so on)

edit: Oops, yes, apparently I confused things here (as explained below). Sorry.

Aren't you confusing things here?

The music on the YouTube video is described as:

   a modified template of "Gain" used with permission from DETUNE ltd. denkitribe http://soundcloud.com/denkitribe/gain - I created this arrangement on the Korg iMS20 iPad App, and it's my first custom score.

"Air France" is the flight company here, not the swedish band. I thought at first you were talking about the usually ambient music that plays in Air France's TV ads, but apparently there are two "Air France" the Earth can bear. :P

I like how you mistook the music as produced by Air France, and then basically went "Air France's music is ambient, therefore this piece is also", when it's very clearly not :P

“The photos during take-off and landing are all computer models and totally rendered because I would never use an electronic device during times when the FAA prohibits them.”

Lulz.

This looks fantastic but hearing the shutter release every few minutes would've irritated the hell out of me if I was sitting anywhere near him on that flight.

Why does this video need to be captured by a lucky passenger who found amicable crew to let it be recorded? Why don't we have videos like this published by airlines?

True. I didn't even realized we could see the northern lights on such a common flight route (and I realize now that it was pretty obvious).

This seems to be what most of us are thinking :), call off that Alaska trip.

Site is down, YT mirror: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j36Erxd5rc

And Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/21822029

Generally you can't have the window open when people are sleeping at night time in the plane. Anyone's guess how he manage to do that?

I usually keep the window open at night and have never had anyone say anything. I thought the only rule around that was they had to be shut during take-off/landing if the cabin lights were on.

They actually have to be open during take-off/landing, in case of a crash the rescue crew has to be able to look inside the plane from the outside.

And the lights are dimmed on a nighttime takeoff/landing so that, in the event of needing to evacuate, your eyes don't need to adjust as much as when going from very bright to very dim.

Sounds like he just got a really cooperative flight crew & fellow passengers. Maybe everyone bought into the idea.

"…I did get lucky and have a whole row to myself to setup the tripod and gear. Thanks to my neighbors for not minding an SLR click every 2 to 30 seconds for 11 hours, and thanks to the whole Air France flight crew for being insanely friendly and allowing me to shoot…"

Now I need to Google why that is, it drives me nuts when they make you shut your window at night... It's dark!

'Sleeping time' on a plane is fairly independent of actual time outside. It's when the crew want a subdued, calm and restful (and hopefully asleep) cargo of passengers.

It's akin to hanging black curtains in a babies room to ensure the best chance they'll sleep for as long as possible before crying for mother's milk (or another scotch and dry).

So, essentially, it's not about shutting the window because it's dark, but ensuring the window is shut before it gets light again?

I'm only speculating, sorry, as someone who's spent a lot of time on planes.

...but I've observed a fairly obvious system of attempting to regulate sleeping patterns on planes independent of outside time. Setting a slightly unnatural 'pattern' to a flight with timed refreshments, meals, sleepy time etc. Presumably to provide a sense of 'natural' sleep/wake cycles and also to manage the cargo so the flight crew can also rest as required.

The blinding light on the horizon coming in full bore at right angles, when passengers are supposed to be sleeping is probably an issue, but I suspect that having the blinds drawn even when dark is a psychological 'it's sleepy time, so sleep... so the crew can chill out too' is another thing.

That seems like a good explanation. My circadian rhythms are shot with a decade of all nighters and free wheeling around the clock so I might not be as sensitive to these techniques :-)

That is how it was explained to me by a flight attendant. Obviously it doesn't matter if the blinds are down when it is dark outside, but the sun will come up sooner than some sleeping people expect/want it to. And if you happen to fall asleep with your blind up, by the time you wake up to put it down, it will be too late--the light will already be flooding in on everyone else.

A seat light is much dimmer and more focused than sunlight flooding in through an open window, so it's less disturbing to sleeping passengers.

On flights where it was known that we would be landing in darkness or dusk, they didn't care if the blinds were up--since the passengers would have to wake up to egress anyway.

Just wondering: The flight attendants didn't give you any troubles on your setup?

Naw, it wasn't an american airline :P

Very cool.

Here is the flight path, for those interested: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=SFO-CDG&DU=mi

Actually, the flight path can vary depending on weather conditions between a lower-latitude route[1] and a more direct great-circle one[2].

1. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AFR83/history/20130401/22...

2. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AFR83/history/20130331/22...

Given the Northern Lights are visible in the video, I think it's safe to assume it's the Great Circle route.

I'm not an expert, but he's shooting out the right hand side of the aircraft - even on the great circle route, that strikes me as very southern northern lights?

I'm curious: how is it possible that the lower-latitude route is almost one thousand miles longer than the great-circle one, and still, one plane took just 11 minutes more to get to Paris than the other at almost exactly the same speed? Or maybe I'm miscalculating and the extra 2 knots of average speed make that much difference in 7000+ miles trip.

What other factors not shown by FlightAware should be taken into account in this case?

The Jet Stream, which at times blows nearly west to east across the continental U.S., and can provide a powerful tail wind to jet aircraft. This is why the parent post references "depending on weather conditions."

It would be great if there was an alternative visualization with a polar view or at least a projection where the cylinder is angled so the midpoint of the flight touches the cylinder. Long east-west flights are much easier to understand that way.

True but from the video it's obvious they took the great circle route that I posted and not the route over the plains. Not just the lights either, the landscapes at the beginning.

Yup, that looks like Paris alright, overcast and grey!

Except for today.

That glimpse of the tripod and camera is surprising.

How and what was the hardware setup?

+1 I want to know as well. Normally, we will get some trouble of setting up and capturing photos on flight :)

It was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II + battery grip [1], Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L II lens [2], a TC-80N3 shutter release timer [3], on a Slik travel tripod [4].

As for how it was shot: “I shoot these on Av (Aperture Priority) with an ISO ranging from 200 during the day to 6400 at night. That way the 5d2 will automatically go up to 30 seconds at night to as quick as 1/8000th when dawn comes. [On timing:] 2 seconds during the day, and up to 30 second exposures and intervals at night. [On battery life:] I have the grip with two batteries and I disable photo review so the LCD screen never lights up. That way I can shoot about 3k - 4k photos off two batteries fully charged.”

[1] http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/590457-REG/Canon_3353B...

[2] http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/16-35mm-ii.htm

[3] http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_...

[4] http://www.adorama.com/alc/0011522/news/Compact-Travel-Tripo...

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