Green Sky in the Morning

It was about 4:00 in the morning on Saturday when my cell phone sounded the alert for a possible geomagnetic storm brewing (courtesy of spaceweather.com).  Kathy and I were vacationing in Banff, Canada, and I could see some reddish clouds in the sky, nicely reflecting the town's lights.  Stars were visible, yet no auroras.  But wait -- the clouds in the northeast were silhouetted, indicating that something was lighting up the sky behind them.  Perhaps the coming dawn?  No, it was much too early for that in Banff; sunrise would not be until 8:03am.  Eventually the effect brightened and it became obvious that this was indeed an aurora -- the Northern Lights.

It did not look much like the spectacular images in the astronomy web sites -- usually taken from Alaska or other high latitude regions, without clouds in the way.  But it was the first time Kathy and I had seen them at all, so the view was amazing enough for us!

One thing you may not know is that the picture-book photographs of auroras are all time exposures -- mine was 6 seconds at f/4 with ISO 6400.  So, like for most nighttime sky views, photography enhances our ability to see and appreciate the Northern Lights.