Northern (and Southern) Lights All Over!

 

Yesterday I'd heard there would be incredible northern lights, but at 7:30 when I got home from Adoration, it was cloudy to the north. Later I saw everyone posting incredible photos on social media, so I went back out, and it was still cloudy, but I saw some pink to the northwest and took this photo from our dock.

You can see the green glow of the aurora borealis through the clouds, but I didn't notice that until looking at in on my computer - it was hard to see on the phone. Travalon and I went to Bong Road, but there was only one other car there, and they weren't outside of it looking at the sky. They left as soon as we arrived. We got out and looked at the sky, but it was totally cloudy.

Today I worked on campus, and a colleague showed me some incredible photos she had taken, but she lives in another town. I got mixed answers about what you could see here in Madison; some people bemoaned the clouds, and others posted photos from, say, the Union Terrace. People all over the world saw them: down in Florida, Texas, and Arizona, over in Scotland, and the aurora australis in Australia were just some of the places I saw photos from. My aunt in Colorado sent this one:

And also a gorgeous sunset.

At lunch I walked with Seabird, then we had our big department meeting this afternoon. I thought this evening we had a Union meeting online, so I would go straight home and log in, but that's tomorrow - tonight was the Shamrock Club book study. However, I hadn't read the book, and I hadn't brought dinner with me so I could go straight there, so I came home to grab a bite to eat... and then felt too comfortable and didn't leave. Travalon came home, and then I checked what was going on at the dock.

Definitely aurora action! Travalon and I went to Bong Road, and tonight there were a ton of people there. You could see the northern lights with your bare eyes, and it looked a bit like this:

The camera picked up a lot more with a three-second exposure. Here are my favorite photos.

Those were looking north. Even right above us there was activity.

So maybe it wasn't as spectacular as last night (at least, some people are saying that online), but it wasn't a disappointment either. It was totally worth going to Bong Road and standing out in the cold.

Famous Hat