In case you managed to miss it, here are some pictures from the best light show of the decade! Or accurately, ”the strongest geomagnetic storm of the current solar cycle” as SpaceWeather.com expressed it. But nevermind what you call it, it was  s p e c t a c u l a r !

It didn’t start too well though. At sunset, the sky was covered in clouds and I thought for sure it was only going to get worse. But it didn’t take long before the miracle happened and the sky was clear, apart from a very thin cloud that made the stars a bit fuzzy in the long exposures. However, initially when I started shooting, I had this feeling that the cloud cover was growing again and my exposures only showed a dull green glow. Granted, the green glow was all over the place (except the northern horizon, ironically) but still, not impressive. So after a while I thought, ok that was it. I walked back to my car and spotted a group of three pines silhouetted against the faint green sky, and thought, well maybe that’s worth an effort anyway. And as I was shooting those frames, the sky exploded! I was so lucky that I had stayed those extra minutes because it turned out that although I had left my intended spot and was back at my car, that parking space provided these perfect gaps in the forest and I was able to shoot straight up with the tree crows against the lights. With hindsight, the spot that I had intended to shoot from, it wouldn’t have worked at all. It only provides a good view to north, and these aurora were everywhere and mostly right above. When it was at its most intensive, I didn’t know any more which way to point my camera, I was basically just turning around in same place with my neck strained to the extreme looking up and started laughing because it was all beyond my wildest expectations!

I just got another aurora alert but tonight the sky is overcast for sure, no miracles in sight. But those magical two hours last night will last me a lifetime! 🙂

Explosion