One for the history books: strong auroras thrilled millions

Photonstopper

by James Guilford

The first DSLR image of the night turned out to be the most spectacular.

It turned out to be a stronger impact than forecast, and the strongest thus far of this solar activity cycle; the geomagnetic storm of May 10 – 11, 2024 produced auroras (Northern and Southern Lights) visible at night from locations nearly pole to pole.

The Responsible Spot: The morning of the aurora, we photographed Sun, capturing this close-up of AR3664, the source of coronal materials that caused the Northern Lights or Aurora storm. It was a most impressive feature and remained intact and spewing powerful flares as it disappeared over Sun’s western limb!

The forecast of possible aurora prompted me to step outside at about 10 PM (EDT), when twilight had faded, to check the skies. At first I saw what I thought might be clouds but knowing auroras can be feeble, I watched. Sure enough, there was movement in those “clouds”.

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center’s depiction of the expected extent of aurora May 10, 2024.

Glancing overhead I saw what I found hard believe — aurora ray features directly overhead … at 41º latitude, a rare sight, indeed! Rushing back indoors, I pulled together camera, fisheye lens, and tripod and headed back out.

What most people saw with their unaided eyes resembled thin clouds. Watching those “clouds” as they ebbed and flowed, and subtle coloration betrayed their true nature to those who knew what to look for. The auroral streaks pictured here were directly overhead in Medina, Ohio — 41º latitude.

The aurora still presented itself as cloudy streaks with, perhaps, hints of color. Now also armed with my smartphone, I activated its camera and aimed it at the sky. There on the screen, light amplified by the phone’s electronics, glorious, eye-popping colors filled the sky! I’d never before experienced an aurora like it.

First image of the night came from the iPhone 13 camera, revealing the true extent of the ongoing aurora.

Only occasionally, during the time I was out, did the aurora’s color become visible to me; apparently being just below the limits of my, and others’ visual perception. Another local observer noted color was more visible shortly before I stepped outside to check on things — the actual peak of the display must have happened as twilight was ending and before 10 p.m.

During the hour we watched the show in the sky, the event slowly faded, then returned bringing forth another burst of color. The balance of images here are from a Canon EOS 5D Mk. 4 DSLR camera with a Sigma fisheye lens. The DSLR exposures are ISO 400, f/2.8, and 4 to 8 seconds.

I observed and photographed the aurora from shortly after 10:00 until about 11:30 EDT and in that hour or so, the intensity faded and then re-surged before fading away again which was my signal to shut down. I might have stayed out longer but had a commitment for the next day — sleep was needed — so, satisfied I’d seen the phenomenon at its best, I put away the camera gear.

Looking very nearly straight up, these rays appear to be emanating from a position in the east-northeastern sky. The extent of the aurora was impressive, visible well into the Deep South of the United States. The aurora australis was widely visible in the southern hemisphere.

Knowing it would be all over the news, I submitted my most spectacular shot of the night to the local newspaper — a daily that publishes on Saturday but not Sunday. It was too late for the Saturday edition but the editor gave my photo a three-column, Page 1 spot on Monday.

Colors rain down on a quiet residence, perhaps poured out from the Big Dipper seen here in an inverted position. The north star, Polaris, is a tiny dot near the center of this picture. (Note how two stars of the Dipper’s bowl point toward Polaris.) The short horizontal streak to the right of Polaris is a moving airplane’s navigation lights, captured in the several seconds of the camera’s exposure.

Our Sun is still in its peak activity period, by some accounts it won’t hit solar maximum until some time in 2025, so there may be more auroras in our near future but this was one for the history books!

Page 1 of the Medina County Gazette, Monday, May 13, 2024.

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