Tag: aurora

The northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, happens when charged particles from the Sun get captured in Earth’s magnetic fields, and move towards the poles. They interact with Earth’s atmosphere, releasing energy that produces these lights that can appear to shimmer.

Thanks to a friend who let me know about an aurora website for NY and her inviting me to meet at a location, I was able to capture these. This event was even visible this past Thursday for about 20-30 minutes with the naked eye.

My camera is not good for night images, they recommend other camera models for that. These are better than I expected for my camera. Others arrived at the same location and showed me their phone photos, which were much better.

The colours changed. It started in one area then appeared in another. The sky seemed filled with colours on the northern half.

It was so powerful that people saw them from a busy shopping street and many posted images of buildings and bridges that were lit up and the aurora was in the background.

Hopefully I will get more chances to see this closer to sunset or sunrise on the weekends. I know, am I asking too much? Word is we may be able to see this from time to time through March.

In one direction a deep purplish colour was visible for a time, then seemed to switch to a reddish colour.

Several times we saw green closer to the horizon. Small aircraft were buzzing back and forth. I would like to see the pictures they got from up there.

I remember my father pointing out the northern lights when I was a child. It was a thrill to be able to see them again with the naked eye. Were you able to see the aurora/ northern lights in your area?