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Aurora Borealis

Seeing the Northern Lights has been on my bucket list for a long time. I thought I would have to travel North to Alaska or to Scandinavia, then get lucky to get a glimpse of the lights. Never would I have imagined I would get to see the aurora right over my house.

And yet!! I was moved to tears last night, gazing up at the night sky over my street. Without further ado, here a few favorite snaps of my particular view of the aurora last night, in chronological order.

A very strong aurora over a fairly brightly lit residential street. There is a curtain of bright green waves of light below a backdrop of warm violet tones. A more ethereal view in tropical blues and greens in the sky over some conifers. The pattern in this one is more like a burst of light. Strong beams shooting down through the aurora into a different set of evergreens. It almost looks as though an alient spacecraft will beam us up. This one is purple on top and green on bottom Similar shot taken a few seconds later, but the purples are more magenta and moody Muddy, faded aurora behind a clump of pinkish-red rhododendrons A deep, cooler purple sky beyond the peak of my house. More of a gradient than any sort of shape. Stars stud the aurora, including the big dipper.

Hard not to keep taking photos, but the aurora changes character constantly. In this case it feels as though the camera lens actually enhances the experience, as you can pick up more color than meets the naked eye.

At the end of the night we even saw the colors gently pulsing overhead. What an incredible treat. If you missed it and were within range, there may be more tonight.

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  • Reply from Amelia Bellamy-Royds on

    @melanie Lovely photos! I was also very excited to get a good light show, even though I do live in a part of the world that gets auroras fairly regularly. Although I must say that everyone's fancy photos kind of messed up my expectations of what it would be like to see it in rea…