Northern Lights

[marisa]

On our drive tonight we saw the northern lights.

I have never ever seen them before. They came out a little bit for about ten minutes. Then they got really strong! I couldn't believe how intense the colors were....I have never seen anything like it before. They were also moving very fast, like a flag in the wind.

My camera picked up a lot of grainyness. But most of these photos are dead on with the colors...I'll point out which is most realistic to what we saw.

Very close to the colors but the blue over there was pink not purple or blue.
<img src="http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/images/northernlights.jpg">
Again, the green was that bright and same shade, but the blue was actually a pink.
<img src="http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/images/northern3.jpg">

<img src="http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/images/northern4.jpg">
The bright area on the bottom left is our car headlight :P
<img src="http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/images/northern5.jpg">
<img src="http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/images/northern6.jpg">

Directly above us the sky was super bright and really colorful. It was like this picture but not nearly so bright...not sure why the camera picked it up so grainey and bright.
<img src="http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/images/northern2.jpg">

:D I wish I had gotten GOOD pics but these will have to do until I get a new cam at christmas and see the lights again!

Marisa

[Shad0w]

Aawww Marisa,

Those are awesome!!!! :)

[vanderkm]

Great pics Marisa - the norther lights are incredible to see and you got a really great show of them from the looks of those pictures!!

thanks for sharing,

mary v.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Totally awesome!!

[HeatherRose]

Those are some amazing pictures Marisa :D I wish there weren't so many bright lights were I live :(

[Matt_K]

See what happens when you leave Bradford and come visit me?? :D

[Brad C]

Wow the 3'rd picture down in the right of the picture looks to be a face of some kind :o Kinda creepy lol

Nice Pics :)

[Invictus]

Incredible pics!!! This is by far my favorite natural phenomenon. There is nothing more beautiful.

[marisa]

Matt- I don't have to leave Bradford!

My boyfriend caught this neat ones. They are moving SO fast right now above my house...it's amazing. They die down, then start up again.

<img src="http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/images/northern7.jpg">
<img src="http://8snakes.myftp.org/marisa/images/northern8.jpg">

Marisa

[Tim_Cranwill]

Sooo cool! We get some pretty good ones out here in the winter but I've never seen green like in those first few pics! :)

[marisa]

Those first green ones were insane Tim! They only lasted about four minutes, but at the peak it was like an alien invasion for sure!!!

Marisa

[Derrick]

The grainyness of the photos probably has to do with the iso setting of the camera. Anything over 800 usually end up like that. If its just a point and shot camera with a night time setting its the same results.

Regardless cool pics

[Artemis]

wow.... hope to see those in person one day! Nice photos!!

Artemis

[alan]

I second with Artemis, never seen one in person before.

Nice shots Marisa! :D

[Cookie]

I have some neat pics of the northern lights... would show but they may incriminate me wink wink

[Katt]

Gorgeous! Last night were witnessed a spectacular display of the Aurora borealis. They flicked and moved so fast. Just like they were dancing! Nearly got us killed b/c we kept watching the sky.

It's very awe inspiring and humbling to see such a natural display.

[bidden]

although I didn't get to see any blue or red, I did see the crazy green. It was amazing!!! At one point my whole field of view was bright green, I could not believe it.

The strangest part was we could see them in the middle of the city(Kitchener) I couldn't imagine what they looked like in the country where there isn't the city glow blocking them out.

[Derrick]

Originally posted by Cookie
I have some neat pics of the northern lights... would show but they may incriminate me wink wink

hehe

[Thrush]

I also saw them last night, incredible!!

[Nicki]

WOW, awesome pics marisa!!!! VERY nice!
I was SO impressed I was able to see some of the green, even living RIGHT downtown in Ottawa!!!! It was spectacular, that's for sure! :)

[beanersmysav]

I love things like that, however the most amazing thing I saw was about 2-3 years ago at 5:15 AM it was a meteor shower than comes around something like every 70 years. Looked as if every start in the sky was falling. Hopefully I live to see it once more. Anything that gets me up that early has to be amazing.

[Linds]

That's absolutely wild! Totally unreal! :bugout:

[nita]

I love the northern lights, I have family out in the country and have been lucky enough to see them there and often see them here in Edmonton, but the colors are much better out in the country. Lightning as well is beautiful in the country and here I always thought lighting was white!! LOL, I've seen pink out on the farm.

[proud2bcanadian]

That's beautiful!! Thank you so much for sharing!!

[reptiguy420]

I seen the northern lights last night as well and i live in Michigan!I watched the news this morning before work and they said your supposed to be able to see them tonight too.Dont see them that often but when we can they are deffinately beautiful....and very nice pics by the way!

[Shad0w]

Here is a link that helps ya shoot Aurora...

It also has some AWESOME pics from 48 miles outside the arctic circle:

http://www.ptialaska.net/~hutch/aurora.html#Latest%20Images

[Shad0w]

This is one of my fav's:

http://www.ptialaska.net/~hutch/110601.jpg

Seems almost magical!

Thats the moon rising!
Look at the Aurora reflection off the water.. intense!

[Clownfishie]

AWESOME pics Marisa :D That's just incredible -- I've never been priviledged enough to see them in person before -- heck, I don't know if we even GET them out here. LOL. You're lucky to have seen such a beautiful display though -- Hopefully next time with the new camera and some practice, you'll get some pics that you'll be happier with -- I still say these ones are great though! ;)


Jen

[Shad0w]

Oh and these are even neater!!!

Shots of Aurora from SPACE!

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/images/space/

[Cruciform]

The display I saw last week was amazing, but no color to speak of. Pulsing beams shooting across the sky, it was just amazing.

Haven't seen anything like that since August 8th, 1982. (A date I remember because it was my 10th birthday and the first time I saw them).

I hope this means we're in for a lot of nice light shows this winter.

[Removed_2815]

Originally posted by Cruciform
I hope this means we're in for a lot of nice light shows this winter.
The lightshow last week was the result of a particularly large solar flare. All the solar wind has since passed around/through Earth so it's all over until the next good-sized solar flare, which can happen at anytime; tomorrow, this winter, 2 years from now - it's all happenstance...
Cheers,
Ryan

[Cruciform]

Two or three winters ago we saw them practically every night we went hot-tubbing at a friends place. They weren't really active like the white ones from the other night and when I was a kid, but slowly pulsing bands of color.

If the flares are as active coming up as they were then, I'm looking forward to it.

[munchy]

Originally posted by Clownfishie
heck, I don't know if we even GET them out here.

jen, im on the mainland and i actually saw it a couple weeks ago. it was insane and i only saw it once. it was nothing nearly as extreme as marisas pics, but there was light pulsating through the sky and tripping me right out!! it was at about 2am and there were no clouds in the sky. there was no crazy red and blue colors or anything. still sweet though.

[justinO]

Originally posted by Cookie
I have some neat pics of the northern lights... would show but they may incriminate me wink wink


thats what photoshop is for :)...



ive seen them lots before, but never that green.. usually it was just a pale green for me where i lived at the time.. (bruce peninsula area)


cheers,
Justin

[marisa]

Yeah that GREEN bright streak came and was gone in about four minutes. It like peaked. It was really amazing to watch.

There are some really neat websites out there that help you better "predict" when you can see the Aurora, but as Ryan said, it's really up to the sun.

Marisa