I did not hold out much hope for seeing the Northern lights Tuesday night. I learned from previous attempts you must eschew all television or other entertainments and do nothing but scan Facebook for every pink and green aurora post in your feed.
I saw the locations creep closer and closer. “Washington Missouri … I could drive there in 90 minutes.” Then Facebook served up a post, not from a friend, but a nearby stranger, who posted a photo from the cross street on the corner of my subdivision.
So, I lost my mind, pulled on minimal clothing, and yelled a goodbye to Gary, who surprised me by saying he wanted to come with.
“Really?” I said, “Because you won’t be comfortable, so you’ll be a pill.” He persevered. That added five extra minutes of clothing criticism (IT’S COLD) and negotiations on why we were driving (IT’S WARM) and all the things that help us maintain his comfort threshold.
We were on the road when I stopped the quibbling with, “Just pull in here, anywhere, I don’t care.”
First I raised my phone and set the exposure, and a random meteor streaked across the screen. I have not seen a meteor in decades of looking for meteors.
It streaked from left to right and burnt up where the barely pink part is on the right, right above the tree. Pink, then pinker, even to the naked eye. We crossed the street, pointed at the pink for passing motorists (one stopped). We took photos and my last one looked like this.
8 responses to “Finally the cosmos cooperates”
Lovely! But did it look as pink to your naked eye?
Well I just saw that you had the aurora australis that same day. Did you see yours? I imagine you must see your lights often.
Big Dot – You know, when I first saw it with my naked eye it looked identical to the bare pink in the camera photos I took last year. (https://mocklog.com/2024/10/14/weak-pitiful-northern-lights/) But by the time we were done (half an hour later or an hour) it was pink enough to the naked eye that the woman who stopped could see what we were pointing at. It looked like the edges of the photo above. The green and reddish-pink only showed up with the increased exposure.
Also, it did not move at all. So I guess moving curtains are next on the bucket list.
All – As a coda, I did tell Gary that I was glad here was there.
You should come to Canada! We’ve got Northern Lights, good poutine, and the Barenaked Ladies.
AH – I’ve been three times. Toronto when I was in my thirties, once on a day trip from Niagara, and then a week in Quebec. I got the poutine in Quebec (very good), Barenaked Ladies in Niagara, and sadly the Bernardo trial in Toronto, ugggh. No lights!
Wow, that’s a real Canadian trifecta! I’m much further North and West so we get reliably good northern lights so long as the sky is clear.
AH – Do they always ripple and move? Or do you just frequently get a static glow like we saw without photo enhancements? Is it worth the exposure to the freezing cold, though?