Chasing the Northern Lights

I have always been fascinated by the Northern Lights, for as long as I can remember.  Perhaps fueling this fascination is the relative infrequency of their appearances near the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  Sure, Minnesota is often described as being a stone's throw from the arctic tundra, but under the pervasive and inescapable glowing lights of a "major" metropolitan area, even stars are sometimes challenged to shine brightly.  So Aurora sightings are pretty rare in these parts. Yet drive a few hours north and the likelihood of Aurora sightings increases substantially.

Such was the case on the night of October 1, 2013.  A friend who lives in Grand Marais posted an update indicating that the Northern Lights were visible in his neck of the woods.  A quick check of Spaceweather.com confirmed that conditions were indeed ripe for geomagnetic activity.  Without going into the technical and scientific details that drive the statistics, all of the indicators suggested that Aurora viewing in our area was a distinct possibility without having to trek north of Duluth.  This has happened a few other times this year after solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) hurtled toward Earth, however previous instances coincided with poor weather conditions--hard to see Northern Lights during a rainstorm or even under a thick soup of clouds.  

After scouting a couple places on Google Maps that might provide for an interesting northern exposure, my daughter and I packed up a few things and jumped in the car.  She brought her Chemistry homework and I my trusty Nikon D5100 and tripod.  We drove north, exiting the interstate on the other side of Forest Lake.  The moonless night sky was filled with brilliantly twinkling stars, an awe inspiring sight in and of itself.   As our eyes started adjusting to our very dark surroundings, we began to pick up on the green glow of the Northern Lights near the north horizon across a small lake. The longer we looked to the north, the clearer they became.  We had hit Aurora pay dirt.

I set up the tripod and checked the settings on the camera.  Taking photos at night requires a tripod since the shutter is going to be open for a period of time and the camera needs to remain perfectly still. Even the act of pressing the shutter button can cause a slight jiggle or shake which can be seen in the resulting images.  To combat this, I used a wireless remote to control the shutter actuation.  With the camera in manual mode, auto focus and image stabilization turned off, shutter speed set between 20 and 30 seconds, aperture wide open and ISO bumped up to 1600, I began to shoot.  While I tend to be my own worst critic, I could not have been more excited seeing the photo thumbnails on the small LCD monitor on the back of the camera.

Here are a few of the images from what would be an awesome night viewing the Northern Lights with my darling daughter, who had set aside her Chem homework to absorb the heavenly spectacle.

Such a nice spot to watch the Northern Lights... you can clearly make out the reflection of the big dipper in the water!

 Kira sitting on the dock.  It's not easy trying to remain motionless for 20-30 seconds.

In this one, I was able to to use a ten second delay before the camera would take the photo, which BARELY gave me enough time to get down the dock.

The water was dead calm, although the fish were jumping constantly, as if they too were trying to get a better look at the Auroras.

We did not anticipate for how chilly it would be after midnight; fortunately I had a blanket in the car to keep Kira warm.

The Aurora colors were mostly the typical green though some purples and reds were evident as well.

Some pretty interesting patterns of light developed.  The Northern Lights were like curtains shimmering in the sky; we could even make them out directly overhead, albeit faintly.

I think about this time a critter decided to join us near the dock, perhaps to see who'd be silly enough to be staring at the sky for hours on end.  It was just a cat, but it spooked Kira.  :-)

In this image, you can see a shooting star right as it dips below the tree line.  It was pretty bright--most of the shooting stars were more faint.  We counted a dozen or so while we were out.

Kira wrapped up in a blanket of stars, at one with the universe, contemplating the vastness of the heavens, ever alert for shooting stars and passing cars.

We had a great time hanging out together on our Northern Lights expedition, watching the Auroras, counting the meteors and otherwise taking in all the celestial beauty that's suspended overhead.