The Aurora Borealis
I finally got to see the Northern Lights! Now that I live pretty far north, I have a better chance of seeing them. I have a standing agreement with a friend of mine who lives out in the country where it is quite dark. She will call me, regardless of the time of day, if the aurora borealis is visible. I've missed a couple events due to rainy and cloudy skies and being too asleep to get up.
But this time....I was able to see them from the dark regions of the Palouse. Because the area I live in is fairly rural there isn't much light pollution but just enough to require a 15 minute drive into the country. I could see the glow over the northern horizon as I was driving. It was 11:30 pm on Sunday, July 15th. I pulled over and rolled the windows down, turned off all the lights and waited. In just a few minutes my eyes adjusted and the glow was much brighter. It was reminiscent of the glow you can see over dense urban areas from far away but the direction I was looking had no cities at all for a couple hundred miles. It was white and diffuse like a glowing cloud.
Sadly it wasn't the dancing red ribbons that I long to see and gawk at in photographs. But hey, I saw them! I learned that the human eye cannot always see the colors. Even though the light was actually greenish, I saw white. But through the magic of digital technology, cameras can pick up the colors beautifully. These photos were taken by my friend, Matt Singer, from his yard out in the country. If him and his wife, Erin, didn't live so far out I would have driven to their place to watch it. Next time.
But this time....I was able to see them from the dark regions of the Palouse. Because the area I live in is fairly rural there isn't much light pollution but just enough to require a 15 minute drive into the country. I could see the glow over the northern horizon as I was driving. It was 11:30 pm on Sunday, July 15th. I pulled over and rolled the windows down, turned off all the lights and waited. In just a few minutes my eyes adjusted and the glow was much brighter. It was reminiscent of the glow you can see over dense urban areas from far away but the direction I was looking had no cities at all for a couple hundred miles. It was white and diffuse like a glowing cloud.
Sadly it wasn't the dancing red ribbons that I long to see and gawk at in photographs. But hey, I saw them! I learned that the human eye cannot always see the colors. Even though the light was actually greenish, I saw white. But through the magic of digital technology, cameras can pick up the colors beautifully. These photos were taken by my friend, Matt Singer, from his yard out in the country. If him and his wife, Erin, didn't live so far out I would have driven to their place to watch it. Next time.
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