The Northern Lights

Aurora Borealis: Northern Dawn, Blazing Skies, Flaming Sky Dragons, Northern Lights

On Wednesday, my friend Cat invited me to join her camping in northern Montana to watch the Aurora borealis on Thursday night. It was supposed to be a remarkable storm, like the one I had slept through on Monday. To say that she is passionate about Auroras is an understatement. I wasn’t so motivated to see the northern lights. I’d seen them once before. They were alluring, but I wasn’t so enthralled. An opportunity to watch Cat revel in her glory and spend a night in remote Montana seemed a solid reason to go.

It Begins

We arrived at Koocanusa Lake at 8 p.m. Thin, wispy, white streaks reveal the aurora borealis. I can see pillars of light on the horizon shining straight up into the night sky. My camera sees the dramatic colors. Behind me, where the crescent moon is rising, the sky is subtly pink. It’s nice. I lament that I’d like to watch it without a device, to see it with my own eyes.

Our eyes aren’t made to register faint colors in low light. To the naked eye, the northern lights usually appear as shades of gray with subtle coloration. Cameras don’t have the same limitations and let in more light, especially with longer exposures, capturing the dancing lights’ majesty.

A Historical Event

The Aurora chasers are very excited about tonight’s electromagnetic storm forecast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G4 watch. This is only the second G4 watch since 2003.

Satellites orbiting one million miles from Earth measured the speed and intensity of this storm 30 minutes before it arrived at our atmosphere. A class X solar flare coinciding with coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the sun two days ago are heading towards us at almost three million miles per hour.

What Causes the Northern Lights?

CMEs are large clouds of electrified gas (plasma) that erupt from the sun. When these outbursts are directed toward Earth, they can penetrate our atmosphere. The force of that plasma shock wave results in geomagnetic storms appearing as the Northern Lights. These magnetic storms can impact infrastructure, as in the 1859 Carrington Event, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm in history. That Aurora was seen globally and caused sparking, electric shocks, and fires in US telegraph towers. Tonight’s storm has the potential to cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts, and damage due to extended cuts of the electrical power grid, which is why NOAA issued a G4 watch.

I Get What I Asked For

Wispy sheer streaks begin to rapidly fill the sky and subtle hues of green, yellow and red splatter the horizon. I can see it all with my own eyes.

The entire dome of the sky ripples with waves of light as if reflecting the lake’s surface. Then it shifts, taking the form of flames of a crackling, warm campfire licking the heavens. The sky mesmerizes just like the fire. Then it’s flashing in all directions like distant lightning that illuminates storm clouds.

A coronal eye appears above me, a point where the rays all seem to converge. It begins to pulse, swelling with light and then receding like a heartbeat. I’m watching the heartbeat of the Universe. I lie down on the beach to take it all in and marvel.

And then the eye begins to morph and shape-shift. It’s like it’s telling a story, not random, but a choreographed show. Birds, dragons, a bearded man, a Phoenix…

Is this even real? This must be a hallucination. I’m looking at the quantum physics of the Universe, where we are all connected; the edges of our bodies cease to exist, like in a near-death experience, an ayahuasca ritual, or a guided psilocybin revelation. More forms appear in the sky.

There is so much solar energy in this storm; how can there be anything left for daylight tomorrow?We’ve been watching for hours. Yet murmurs of “Oh my God,” “This is incredible!” and “Can you even believe this!?” continue to pepper the air.

I’d go to laser shows at the Adler Planetarium when I was young. Recline back and watch the dome show. It’s this. But who is the choreographer now?

At the 45-second mark in the above video, the space station records part of what we witnessed.

Pulses. Waves. Arcs. Bands. Streaks. Rays. Pillars. The WHOLE sky! And the Pleiades/Seven Sisters star cluster is part of the show, too.

After midnight, the show quiets, the light mutes, and I can’t see it very well with my naked eyes anymore. Everyone else has tucked into blankets and sleeping bags, driven in by the cold, to watch from bed. Now, after four hours of splendor, I do the same.

The next morning, Cat says she was out again around 3:30 a.m., and it was even more impressive. I don’t know how that can be true. It does not compute. How could it be more amazing!?! And how does this go on all night!?

We are approaching a solar maximum, the time of greatest solar activity during the Sun’s eleven-year cycle. This winter, there will likely be more opportunities to see the Northern Lights. I recommend getting out of bed to take a peek.

I will never look at the sky the same again. I watched the heartbeat of the Universe.All of my images in this blog were taken with my iPhone 15, handheld and unedited, to demonstrate that anyone can photograph the aurora borealis, so long as you’re out there.

If you’re interested in purchasing or licensing any images you see here, please email me at SNewenham at exploringnaturephotos.com, and I’ll make it happen.

Subscribe here to receive an email whenever a new blog posts.