Northern Lights

I am staying at the Churchill Northern Studies Center, which is a great facility with a wonderful staff. There is another group here that is studying the Auroras with an expert named Roger Woloshyn, a.k.a. Starman. In the evening he tracks the solar activity on spaceweather.com, and when he says, "Showtime!", everyone gears up to head outside. Last night I tagged along hoping to get my first glimpse of the Northern Lights. Boy, did I!

At first it was a faint band of light across the sky above us, but it slowly brightened and turned green. After a little while, there were multiple green bands that brightened and faded, moved and changed. I was quite satisfied when we came back in to warm up. I'd seen the Northern Lights for the first time!!

About 15 minutes later, Roger gave the call and we all went outside again. This time it was a more remarkable display than before!! It was directly overhead, like a light show just for our small parking lot audience. The band of green became very bright, then started streaking and moving with hints of red swirling through. Everyone told me that it was an absolute amazing display and that I was very fortunate to have that as my first Aurora experience! I am sure I will be up late every clear night so that I can see the beautiful sky show as often as possible while I am here!!

(These pictures were taken last night by Roger.)