Aurora Color
                               Television Project
                             Geophysical Institute
                                   Box 757320
                          Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7320
                                      MEMO

To:         To whom it concerns

From:       Daniel L. Osborne                     TEL 907-474-7107
            Project Manager & Producer            FAX 907-474-7290
            email= dosborne@gi.alaska.edu
            Internet page at:  http://dac3.pfrr.alaska.edu/actp/#explained

Subject:    Aurora Color Television Project(ACTP): Auroral and other ultra low
            light level images

Date:       [April 30, 1997]                       [DESCRIP.DOC]

[LN]

ACTP possesses, about 100 hours of top quality, true speed true color video
recordings of the aurora.  I know of no one else who has such a selection or
quality of aurora images.  All other moving auroras that are on film of are
long-exposure elapsed-time images that are sped-up to falsify some types
auroral motions.  Only fast frame rate images show the aurora as it truly
appears, their curls, swirls, and shear motions etc..  Time-lapse film can not
show the internal differential motions of auroras.  Our fast frame rate allows
pans, tilts, and zooms plus true speed auroral motions that cannot be obtained
from time-lapse.  Our television camera (operating at 30 frames/second) has a
film speed equivalent of 2 million ISO (ASA) without the equivalent grain of a
very fast film.  The camera's color video output is standard broadcast quality,
RS-170A, NTSC.

I have made two productions from our footage.  The "Aurora", 1985/86, is 1/2
hour of selected images from the best aurora images from two years of work and
set to symphony music.  The second, the "Aurora Explained" is a approximately
1/2 hour explanation of the aurora and what causes it.

I license images from the "Aurora" and a few other special cuts such as a rare
Great Red Aurora from March of 1989.  Our images have been licensed for use by
the National Geographic (several titles), BBC (several titles), Heather
Cooper's Guide to the Universe, CBS Northern Exposure, CBS Winter Olympiad TV,
The Planet Earth Series (PBS), Discovery Channel (many productions), Beyond
2000, Castle Rock Productions, to name a few.

Our "Image Sales Policy" lists charges from $18.00USD/second on up, with a
minimum sales or kill fee of $600.00USD.  Licensed images are supplied from
digitally noise reduced camera original tapes on Betacam-SP, in NTSC, with a
new time code track.  The licensed images are not out-takes or in-takes from an
edited master.  They may contain frames not in any of the above productions.
Licensed images supplied for your editing will contain lap or pre-roll frames
on each end, if the frames exist, typically 5 seconds at each cut's end.  I
will send a complete sales policy and prices if you are further interested in
our images.