February's Northern Lights Display!

Late Sunday afternoon, Riley and I took an impromptu hike out to our back property because the skies were lit up in such rich color, and although I've seen so many beautiful sunsets, my heart draws me to see the next one, because each one is individually beautiful! God's artistry in the skies is always fresh, new, and glorious. 

As I kept stopping to watch the views of the sunset, Riley sat with me. What a sweet companion she is! I didn't take Annie, as she had already had her walk that morning.  We are trying to limit how often she walks with her unstable hips. I miss her on our walks so much! 

A view of the southern end of our property overlooking our wonderful neighbor's barns. 

A view from the back acreage of our property looking towards our home. 

As Riley and I walked back toward the house, I had the thought come to me - "oh my, tonight would be a glorious night to see the aurora". I knew the sun had been having solar flares, and the possibility existed that if the skies cleared, we might be able to see them.  Sure enough, later that evening, around 8 pm, I looked out my north-facing kitchen window and saw a green glow on the horizon! Oh, how exciting! So, I bundled up warmly, gathered my camera equipment, and headed outside.  

From my yard, facing directly north this is what I could see.  I knew from the past, that if I could see this much color here, it was worthwhile to drive to a better location where the views were much more open. 

This is down the road from us where the green glow was visible with the naked eye.  Keep in mind that as we are so much farther south than northern Canada and Alaska, we don't get the vibrancy in the skies that they get there.  The KP index (the measuring stick of how well you'll see the aurora) was at 5 at this point.  The highest I have seen the KP in our area is 8.  In Canada and Alaska, the KP is often as high as 50. So this gives you an idea, of how we get a rather "diluted" version of the aurora. 

So with your eyes, it can be hard in our area to see much in the way of color. 
However! Sunday night, even though the KP index was about 5-6, there were colors, and the sky was alive with movement! You could see the pillars, the waves, and the sky was alive, pulsating with the vibrancy of the aurora! 

Looking into the southern skies (you can see my pickup parked) this was the view! Incredible. This was at about 9 pm when the sun sets here around 5 p.m.  So the skies were alight with color. No aurora in the southern skies, but still, the light was reflecting! 

The colors variated starting mostly with greens.  As the flare progressed,
I was able to see yellows and reds! 

Overlooking our neighbor's yard. 

I then drove down to the river, where my hope was realized!
An even better view awaited me down there! 

This is when I began to really see the outstanding colors as they magnetized the sky with action. 

You can see the lights of homes on the hillsides. What a spectacular scene it was! 

A car drove by me, just after I started the 30-second exposure revealing its lights in the picture.
That was fun to see! 

As the aurora peaked in its colors over the river, my heart was skipping beats, and tears ran down my face, well - freezing on my face!  It was 17 degrees out, and I was cold. But it was just so beautiful!  Each picture that you are seeing took 30 seconds to capture. I took 300+ pictures.  I kept my truck running, and would hop in every once in a while to warm up. 

I needed about 4 cameras going all at once to catch all the action! 

This is one of the favorites that I captured.  It looks like an aurora rainbow of color! 

The half-moon was out, shining across the river. It was so beautiful too! 

See the pillars moving up from the green into the pink? So beautiful! 

The movement of color in the skies was astounding.  Now, you can't see this much color with the eye - however, you could see the green very clearly! The camera is able to pick up the lighter colors.  The farther north you go, the more your natural eye is able to clearly see these colors.  So, I highly recommend watching the show with your phone camera if you are in the lower 48 states because it will pick up more action than your eye can. 

Glory upon glory! Now the purples have arrived! 

Purples, pinks and blues began to mingle... as this particular flare was ebbing. 

Back to the green, so beautiful too! 

The pillars and streaks were amazing! 

Back at home, the colors were still amazing, yet fading from this particular flare.  Around midnight, I decided I better go warm up in my bed, rather than my pickup! I wish I could've stayed up all night.  My aunt in Canada remarked about glass igloos in Norway.  Hmm... now that sounds like something I could stay up all night in! However, we have SO much cloud cover here where I live that I probably wouldn't be able to use it very often.  Every time we get to see the aurora, it is SUCH a treat.  

Here is a picture of my camera, tripod, and the view with my phone camera. 

It was so cold, that the legs of my tripod were solid ice.  I felt like a block of ice too! I don't know why the brightest colors always come when it's so cold, but, that has been my experience. 

This picture was taken with my hand-held phone camera (Samsung Galaxy S20) for 7 seconds. 

With a bit of editing in my phone gallery, this is the picture that resulted. Again, a hand-held phone camera without a tripod captured this beauty.  Pretty exciting! 

One last picture - again this is from my phone camera, at about a 7-second exposure.  You can go into the manual settings on your phone's camera, change the ISO to 800, and to a 7 to 15-second exposure. If you are holding the camera by hand, 5-7 seconds max, otherwise the photo will be very blurry. 

For my Canon Mark II (a very old camera, but still does a great job), I had my settings at 800 ISO, 28 mm, f/4.5, and exposure at 30 seconds. 

As I was watching these lights in the sky, tears (albeit rather frozen ones) filled my eyes as I was worshipping the Lord and watching this beauty! So incredible to see the sky alive with movement, in pulsating waves of motion, as light swung from the chandeliers of heaven in rich tones of purple, green, yellow, and maroon.  The night was so cold, the sky was full of sparkling diamond stars, and the half-moon was bright and beautiful... oh the sky was just alive in so many ways!  I hope I have in some way helped you to see the beauty of that night, and to rejoice in the Lord who has created this beauty for us to enjoy! 

I think this passage of scripture in Nehemiah shares my heart perfectly: 

Blessed be Your glorious name,

and may it be exalted

above all blessing and praise.

You alone are the LORD.

You created the heavens,

the highest heavens with all their host,

the earth and all that is on it,

the seas and all that is in them.

You give life to all things,

and the host of heaven worships You.

Nehemiah 9:5-6

I am working on creating a video with all these Northern Lights images, and plan to have it ready to share in my next blog post. 

In the meantime, I have a couple of dear blogging friends who have YouTube channels, and I'd like to introduce you to them and their channels. Be sure to drop by, say hello, and support them too :) 

My creative friend Nancy from A Joyful Cottage shares some beautiful decorating, and inspirational thoughts on her YouTube channel.  You will be blessed to enjoy the wonderful videos she shares! 

My dear friend Cheryl Smith who blogs at Homespun Devotions shares this beautiful song that she wrote, and I know your heart will be blessed to hear it! 

Enjoy the last day of February, tomorrow is the first day of March, and spring hopefully will be here soon :)