In May 2024, the most intense solar storm in a two decades brought intense and colorful auroras to, it felt, everyone in the world. A G5 solar storm (the most intense class of storm) and clear skies in the United State gave millions of peoples a show and images were flooding in from latitudes as far south as the US/Mexican border . Writing this article a year has been an enjoyable time to reflect on what the most profound memories I have from that night are. If I had written this a year ago I’m sure I would have been caught up in the minutiae of the technique and experience but now I’m content with the big picture of what that night was to me.
Setting the Scene
My dad chose to head to our land in west central Minnesota. This rural area west of my hometown offers northern skies without much light pollution and a variety of settings to shoot in. A pond, sprawling prairie oaks spread through the edges of a 30 acre pasture, and our rustic family hunting cabin were all on the “shot list”.
The First Thrill Of Color
I had definitely never seen that color of pink in my image previews before, and right at sunset to boot? This was going to be quite a night it appeared. These were my internal and external thoughts (yes, I couldn’t stop talking in excitement) as the sun went down and the Northern Lights immediately came out in sky and mixed with the sun’s last rays to for purple and pink auroras. These types of colors are rare because the require high intensity radiation from the sun and a willing magnetic field to allow the radition through. I was keeping a constant watch of the real-time solar wind, magnetic angle, and density of the data.
Frogs and Crickets
The sounds of the Minnesota night were accent to the colors in the sky. Frogs croaked and cheeped from the small, spring-fed pond in the pasture. They seemed to cheer on the aurora and my dad and I talked a lot about how amazing the entire scenes – lights and a symphony – were to experience. This mix of sound and aurora made the experience even more memorable. I’ve seen a lot of a aurora, but another top aurora moment for me was this time in Yakutat, Alaska as a glacier calved and the lights danced above us.
Tired
On May 10, 2024 when the aurora was roaring overhead in color, my wife was at home nursing and caring for our 9-day old son. The fact that she let me out the door at all is a testament to her love for me – she knew I really wanted to see this show! I was tired enough from all of the extra work of having a new baby around that I decided to go to sleep about 12AM. The aurora was in a lull and I decided that I had to sleep. In almost any other circumstance I would have stayed up all night shooting, but I decided to be practical on this particular night. I woke up at about 5AM and the aurora show was still going overhead. This purple image below was captured in the early morning prior to sunrise.
Cabin Camping
It was nice having a place to crash for the night out of the dew. Our family cabin offered familiarity and comfort as I sunk into the sleeping bags on the bed. It was a far cry from some of my nights in Fairbanks where I would bring a sleeping bag and sleeping pad to lie under the stars and aurora to photograph it. I wish I had a cabin to take to all my late night photo shoots!
Grateful
Most of my reflections from this night are how grateful I am that it happened. Grateful that to have a night out with my dad. Grateful my wife was willing to let me out the door with our newborn in her arms. Grateful for the intense color and soothing sounds. Grateful that I had the photography gear with to document it.
