Observing the Northern Lights
I stand with my telescope, looking west at the Aurora Borealis. The star cluster above my telescope is the Beehive Cluster.
Welcome! This journal entry will be in the form of a narrative, followed by the specific copy of the observations I wrote while observing the Northern Lights. If you want to read the journal, please scroll all the way down. The format of this blog is as follows:
Setting the Stage
My First Northern Light Experience
My Best Northern Light Experience
Perfect Evening of Worship
Spending an Eternity in Glory
The Northern Lights Timelapse and Gallery
From the Observation Journal
Setting the Stage
I was excited. After finishing a week of work, I was en-route to my favorite Friday night get-away: Wyoming. Even though clouds passed by as I made my 2 hour trek northward, all the forecast models were clear that I would have clear skies by the time darkness arrived. As I drove in prayer, I thought about my plans for the evening. With my bluetooth speaker, my cameras, and my telescope, I would arrive at my destination (a friend’s house in a Bortle 2), set up my photography equipment, then drive to my observation site where I would observe galaxies and sketch them. When I finish sketching, I would return to my friend’s house and photograph the night sky.
At about 5:45 PM, I got a notification on my phone of a G5 Solar Storm warning. I started to think that just maybe I could get a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Little did I know I was going to have an evening I would never forget.
My First Northern Light Experience
I live 40° North of the equator. Typically, this is way too far south for any Northern Lights to ever be observed. This means that I have never seen them, and rarely ever get the chance to.
The first time I saw them was on April 23, 2023. They were very faint on the horizon, and while my camera picked up color, my eye could only see a glow in the sky. Tragically, I was only able to observe them for 5 minutes before clouds completely filled the sky and I was treated to a cloudy night. There were a couple other nights over the last year where I heard rumors of the Northern Lights being visible, but I never saw them. Part of what makes it tricky is the fact that they are very difficult to predict. Usually, there is a 3-9 hour notice before they arrive. Thus, they are hard to plan on.
With the spontaneity of the Northern Lights and how far south I am, I never make plans or counted on seeing them.
My first picture of the Northern Lights on April 23, 2023. Obviously, there are a lot of clouds. Made for a cloudy night!
My Best Northern Lights Experience
Then came Friday, May 10, 2024. I pulled off the side of the road at 9 PM. As the evening darkened, I could hear the singing of the meadowlarks come to a stop. I pulled out my telescope, and then decided to look for Polaris in the darkening sky. As I glanced north, I noticed some pillars of light mixed with the evening shade. I have never seen anything like it! I thought, “Could it be?”. Grabbing my phone, I snapped a picture. And sure enough, they were there!
The cellphone picture of the Northern Lights at dusk. Little did I know the kind of night that was in store for me!
I was super excited at that point. I found myself immediately texting all my family and friends to tell them to look north! I was hoping for them to share this rare experience with me.
The evening’s Northern Lights show started somewhat unimpressive. (Even though it was very impressive to me). The majority of the lights were only visible in grayscale, and they were not very bright. Even so, I still could see the light pillars and “light pollution blobs” clouding the night sky.
Photograph of the Northern Lights, looking northeast, at 9:48 PM. The show was just getting started.
As the evening progressed, I watched as more obvious light pillars started to form in the sky. It was impressive the amount of light I could see. One thing I noticed was the Northern Lights were so intense that I could not perceive the Great Rift of the Milkyway as it rose. The Northern Lights were too bright!
It wasn’t until around 11:45 PM that the Northern Lights put on a stunning show. As I was observing some deep space objects with my telescope (just for fun), I noticed an intense red light pillar to my northwest. I was stunned that I could see the red with my own eyes!
11:44 PM. Looking northwest, here is my first photograph with the pink light pillar. This was naked eye visible, including the color!
What started as an insignificant little red light pillar exploded into an incredible and colorful show in just 5 minutes!
11:50 PM. Looking northwest, here is another photograph of the same light pillar. It exploded into an incredible show!
This was the beginning of the incredible evening of worship. From this point forward, the Northern Lights would be naked eye visible… color and all! I was able to walk around, read, and write without the need for a headlamp.
Then around midnight, I decided to look up toward Zenith. There sat Arcturus, brightly shining in the night sky. But all around Arcturus were gray clouds of light blobs. A photograph revealed the incredible color that was within them.
A photograph looking at Zenith. The bright star in the green bird-shaped “cloud” is Arcturus.
It was also at this time that I was able to observe the pulsing in the sky! When Northern Lights are intense, they will pulse across the night sky. It looks similar to a flame across the sky that grows and shrinks like a lightning bolt. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life!
The pulsing of the Northern Lights. I attempted to capture it with my camera, which is difficult to do. The best exposure my video could do is 1/60 second @ f/2.8
The Northern Lights continued to shine. I was just stunned and fascinated by them. At around 12:30 AM, I drove a mile east to reposition myself to get some profile shots of Tea Kettle Rock. I think this has to be one of my favorite pictures of the Northern Lights I caught. I love the vivid color of this photo, which was visible (but more greyscale) naked-eye.
The Northern Lights behind Tea Kettle Rock @ 12:40 AM
I continued to photograph the night sky until 1:20 AM. I would’ve continued to photograph, but I had committed to host Bible study at my house, which was 2 hours away, at 9 AM Saturday morning! As I drove back to my friend’s house, I had to drive through Torrington, Wyoming (which is a Bortle 4 in light pollution). As I drove through the street-lit roads of Torrington, I was able to observe the Northern Lights shining in the sky. They outshone the light-polluted sky.
When I finally got to my friend’s house at 2:30 AM, I set up my camera to do a complete timelapse of the Northern Lights for when I slept from 2:30 to 6 AM.
The timelapse and a gallery of the photographs from this incredible night are toward the bottom of the page.
I think it is fitting for me to give tribute to God for this night. I was in the right place, at the right time. I would never have seen this event of glory if it wasn’t for the hand of God who orchestrated this event so perfectly for me to behold.
Below is a timelapse from the National Weather Service showing the solar activity that night. The orange thumbtack shows my approximate location for that night. If I was not in this perfect place, I would never have observed what I observed on May 10-11.
The National Weather Service revealed this timelapse showing where the greatest intensity of the Northern Lights was on May 10-11. The thumbtack points to my location when I was observing this event.
Perfect Evening of Worship
I can only summarize this evening as a perfect night of worship. Besides good weather (mid-40s with no wind), it was an evening of isolation and solitude between me and my Creator. The heavens declare His glory, and I was able to behold a new kind of glory in the heavens which I did not realize was possible.
Likewise, when the day comes for us to see Him, we will see His glory that is unfathomable. I discovered a “new” kind of glory when I saw the Northern Lights. I have never seen anything like the Northern Lights with all my astronomy observations. How much more glory will there be to discover and see when we see the One who made it all?!
I think David’s song of thankfulness perfectly summarizes the evening of worship I had before the Lord of glory:
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Tell of His salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
His marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and He is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before Him;
strength and joy are in his place.Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;
bring an offering and come before Him!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before Him, all the earth;
yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,
and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!”
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
for His steadfast love endures forever!
— 1 Chronicles 16:23-34
One day, every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess “Jesus is Lord.” We will all behold the glory of God in full.
For those of us who have been reconciled before our God through the blood of Jesus Christ, this will be a great time of rejoicing. We will finally meet our Redeemer, who has made us ready to be His bride (Ephesians 5:25-28 & Revelation 19:7). However, if we have not been reconciled before our God, it will be a terrifying day. It will be the day when pure cosmic justice comes, and those who are not reconciled to God will face the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:16-17).
Spending an Eternity in Glory
Have you been reconciled before our holy God? You can be reconciled to the Creator right where you sit tonight!
It’s as simple as recognizing we all have sinned and fall short of God’s expectations, His mark, His glory. However, through His grace He saved us, by sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10). The belief part happens in our heart and the confessing part is a physical demonstration of the belief happening inside.
The physical demonstration should result in repentance.
It should result in humility that says ‘God I need You in my life, I can’t do this without You, so please come into my life. Mold and make me what You want me to be. Break me where I need broken.’ Being reconciled before God can be something as simple as that prayer.
If you repent, believe and confess Christ is Lord, then the work begins. God promises that He will carry on to completion the good work that He began at the time of salvation.
He also promises that there is no condemnation. He will never leave us nor forsake us–no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
We don’t just get to spend the rest of our lives here on earth in fellowship and communion with God in an intimate relationship beyond anything we could ever imagine. He will also come back and get us and we will get to spend all of eternity with Him in heaven.
Beloved, you can spend all of eternity beholding the glory of the One who outshines any glorious thing here on earth. You can spend all of eternity with the One who made the heavens, including the Northern Lights.
One day, God will re-create a new heaven and a new Earth without the consequences of sin. We will no longer live in a fallen world with sickness, pain, suffering, or death! This world will be perfect.
But in order for you to be a part of this new world, you need to be perfect. None of us are perfect. You need to be made perfect. This is why we need a Savior.
Jesus is the only way. There is no other way we can be reconciled before Him.
The Timelapse and Full Gallery
The night of May 10th was a night of incredible beauty. I used every ounce of my energy and every moment that I was awake to capture the Northern Lights. Thus, I have a lot of content which goes beyond the few pictures I posted here on this blog.
One of the things I captured was a timelapse of the storm as it raged through the night. Even though this was only for 2 hours, I find this to be one of the most exciting things to see from the night.
Timelapse of the Northern Lights from 3:00 AM until 5:00 AM when the sun started to rise. My camera was facing North East.
In addition to this timelapse, you will find my gallery of the night with all the pictures I have edited. Understand that there are more pictures I captured, but these are the ones I have had time to edit. In the future I will add more timelapse material too.
And finally, here is verbatim what I wrote in my astronomy journal that night as I observed deep space objects from my Bortle 2 dark site during the Northern Lights. It is fascinating to remember how different the night sky looked this night compared to the Friday night before with no Northern Lights.
From The Observation Journal:
Date: 5/10/2024
Lunar Phase: ~10%
Transparency: Good
Seeing: Fair
Equipment & Eyepieces: Apertura AD8; 20mm, 15mm, 9mm
Weather: Clear Skies, 49ºF, no wind
My notes are below:
9:10 PM:
G5 Geomagnetic Storm today. I can observe light pillars of the Northern Lights beneath Polaris. Currently they are a gray shade, but it’s not dark yet. More Northern Lights visible SE in Virgo, but they are light blobs.
9:23 PM:
Took my first picture, the sky is lit up with them. Observing may be difficult. Noticeable light pillars and shade of light along N —> E. Camera reveals green and pink everywhere! Notice light blob south in Corvus. Still not dark.
9:30 PM:
I saw glimpses of the green shade in the sky. The south blob has retreated, but very clear seeing to the north. Light pillars are visible. Particularly strong glow from Cassiopeia to Lyra.
A meadow lark keeps chirping every few minutes.
The Great Rift of the Milkyway is not visible. Only the brightest stars of Cygnus are visible.
10:52 PM:
Been observing the Northern Lights this whole time. They are like a giant, moving, light pollution blob. But filled with light pillars. The different shades of the green are visible, although difficult to perceive. Red and purple shades, as evidenced by my photographs, are not visible. It’s fascinating to see them above and all across the night sky. South sky has been pretty quiet, but photos reveal impressive red/violet shades.
11:10 PM:
I have my telescope set up, attempting to observe targets. The Northern Lights may make it difficult in some ways.
M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy:
Only faint fuzzies of the core are visible. Not able to detect the fuzz of the arms or the arms themselves. It’s not worth the study to sketch.Ring Nebula:
Visible with averted vision, but faint. When looking directly, it’s a blob. Averted vision reveals the ring.M13 - Hercules Cluster:
I was able to find it through the finderscope. (Note: not visible with averted vision without aid from binoculars/telescope)Bee Hive is still visible [naked-eye]. Hercules is visible, blob. No arms are really visible, even with averted vision.
12:11 AM:
Around 11:30, the lights grew brighter and more impressive. I can walk around and see like it was day.
At 11:45ish, I noticed some obvious greens, yellows, and pinks! You can see the color!
Now at 12:00am, I noticed pulsing. It looks a lot like a flame flying through the atmosphere, a bursting out kind of like lightning. It tends to move NE —> SW, but southward overall. Light pillars are visible, clearly with pulsing, at zenith.
Observer’s note in retrospect:
One thing I did not record when I was observing, but I remember thinking, is that my Bortle 2 sky was probably the equivalent of a Bortle 5 or Bortle 6 of light pollution. Throughout my evening, I could not observe the Milkyway even though it was rising to the East and reached about 45º overhead. The Northern Lights were too bright!
The Aurora at zenith. The bright star in the middle right is Arcturus.