I would have thought an 8 second exposure would have caused some light trails.
IMHO no, from experience with a standard lens/wide angle you can get away with anything up to perhaps a minute without
obvious trailing. Clearly it's a different matter with a long lens/telescope.
. To hold a D800 camera rock steady for 30secs without a tripod and a remote shutter releases is quite a feat especially in an aircraft
Again from experience if you're lucky, and it's a smooth night it's just about possible. I used to photograph aurora by jamming an SLR (OM-10 or even a Zenith
) up against the number 2 or 3 flight deck window. The piccies wouldn't be exhibition quality -the star images would be slightly trailed due to aircraft motion (usually in roll) but the aurora images good enough for basic logging/research purposes. I would post one as an example but they're still on slides and in a box..somewhere safe..
All in all I reckon the aurora images look like the real thing, still no idea about the red lights/glow other than a guess that it's down to fishing of some sort???