Photographic phrustrations

Since I got into photography a couple of years ago I've really started to appreciate good photographs of people and also of the night sky. I'm starting to get the hang of both of these, but I still have a long way to go.

A couple of nights ago I took these photos of the aurora. They look good when viewed from afar, but grainy and blurry close up. I've tried long (30 s) exposures, short exposures, different ISO settings, just about everything. Not sure if its a problem with me or my camera. I suspect that analog cameras still do much better than digital for low light conditions. At least that's what I keep telling myself.