Storms and stars team up to wow us in beautiful time-lapse video

Stargazing and storm-watching are some of my favourite pastimes, and photographer Randy Halverson has combined both to amazing effect in this video, which he titled Huelux.

Filmed over a period of seven months in 2013, the video captures spectacular thunderstorms, stunning views of the Milky Way and even some truly mesmerizing displays of the Northern Lights. Planes and satellites zip across the view as well, and he even captured a few meteors (although you have to watch closely for those, as they only last for one frame of the video). I highly recommend watching it on full-screen mode to get the best experience.

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The truly incredible part about this is that Halverson mainly went out to film the night sky, specifically to get time-lapse video of the Milky Way. The storms and auroras were just an unexpected bonus.

As he says in the description of the video: "The weather in 2013 made it difficult for me to get some of the shots I wanted." However, the storms that rolled in may have spoiled his view of the stars, but they added their own part to the show. Also, the auroral displays were simply amazing, and even more so because he had little to no warning that they were going to happen. They were simply a happy coincidence.

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I have to admit that I do enjoy the conveniences of living near a big city, but it's videos like this that really point out what we're losing by clustering together and creating a lot of light pollution as a result. I wrote a bit about this last August, point out that there's a price we're paying for losing our views of the night sky. Having pictures and videos on our computer is nice, but it just doesn't compare to being able to see it for ourselves on every clear night.

Shutting everything off is no solution though. Giving up on our advances just to catch a glimpse of the night sky would be going backwards instead of forwards. There are campaigns by different organizations that can help us have both, though. The International Dark Sky Association and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada both have programs to reduce light pollution and bring back the night sky, even for those living in the middle of urban sprawl. The kicker is that these programs would even end up saving us all money in the long run. It's just a matter of getting them started.

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