Tag Archives: Northern Lights

Northern Lights / Lady Aurora Danced & Danced

Year 10,

Oh my, did Lady Aurora dance last night. The Northern Lights display in northern Minnesota was fantastic. I drove north from my home in Duluth to just south of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). This region was recently designated a Dark Sky Sanctuary by Dark Skies International. While the Aurora Borealis display was seen hundreds and hundreds of miles to my south, being able to view the dance in a truly dark location was awe inspiring. I hope you enjoy my images and videos, all taken last night … what a great birthday present for me!

All photographs taken within the Greenwood Forest Fire Burn Area in the Superior National Forest. You may wish to visit my Northern Lights Viewing and Photography Page. It reviews forecasting tools and camera settings among other things.

Sand River Northern Lights

Looking Southwest! (one should NOT be able to watch the Northern Lights in the southerly direction)

Steve! (a rare Northern Lights Velocity Enhancement)

Safety in Important (may need to maximize this image)

Movies??! (I was able to take Northern Lights videos in real time, not time lapse photography. This is unheard of, and I was not using a super fancy camera … a Sony A6300 set at ISO 3200 with a 16mm lens)(Video link for blog subscribers)

A Selfie! (My attempt to take a selfie was quite comical. I was on location with a buddy of mine. While the temperature at sunset was 37F, by 10:30 pm the mercury was falling and would reach 14F. A strong crust of snow was forming, but each time I would scamper out to get in my planned image … often I would suddenly break through the snow that was 4+ feet deep and fall. Steve and I got some good belly laughs out of my ineptness, but I only had 10 seconds before the timed shutter delay would fire).

Assuming you are still with me, make certain you visit my Northern Lights page on this web site. You will find lots of useful information on how to know when to find and view Northern Lights.

Northern Nights Near Canada!

Background, Year 9, ,

Today will end my Covid quarantine, and tomorrow assuming I mask up, I will be able to reengage with the world. It will be fantastic to spend time with my wife. We have gotten behind in watching “The Crown”!!

As I have noted in prior posts this week, I am hard at work completing the second edition of Snowy’s Search for Color, and have pushed along on my new book … about Smokey the Great Gray Owl! Thus, it should be apparent that my case of Covid is somewhat mild!

Both of my two books on occasion involve using images of the night sky. Thus, after the hard process of making selections and processing edits, there two scenes will be used in the new book.

Milky Way deep in off the Gunflint Trail (It was so dark this night, that when I walked 25 yards away from my car, it was impossible to see my Subaru Outback! The BWCA is rated as having perfectly dark skies by the International Dark Sky Association)

Northern Lights over the Pagami Creek Wildfire Burn Area (I was 18+ miles from the nearest paved road and within yards of the BWCA. During this entire night of Aurora chasing I never saw another person or vehicle … only heard wolves and owls! The Northern Lights had been much more dramatic earlier in the night, but the contrast between the burn area and the Aurora was awe inspiring). The light painting of the wooden bridge in these images was done with the ever so brief use of a tiny flashlight (about 1 second).

Lady Aurora Dances for 3 Generations of the Family

Year 9,

Lady Aurora came out and danced last night … oh my did she ever dance! The Northern Lights at our small Northwoods cabin near the Canadian border with Minnesota were fantastic. I knew moonset would be at 11:15 pm; thus I set an alarm for 12:05 am and was I thrilled with what I saw when I awakened. I then proceeded to wake up my friends, my grandchildren and their parents (my kids). Everyone was transfixed with the sky’s shimmering beauty as we watched the lights march across the night sky.

After viewing the Aurora for about and hour, I moved on to Suomi Lutheran Church and Smith Lake (2nd church photo has been light painted with a flashlight for about one second). I wanted to try taking a few photos at other locations. At the bottom of this post you will find a couple of images from the “morning after.” Fog was forming at sunrise given the temperature was only 41F. The Northwoods are magical.

I finished back at NorthStar Lake where I even took two selfies!

As a fyi, unlike many folks who take photographs of the Northern Lights, I edit in post processing to remove color and reflect what I saw with my naked eye. The Aurora last night was very white.

Finally, a photograph taken the next morning of the same scene. The sun had just popped over the treetops, and given the 41F heavy fog formed within the next ten minutes.