So many of us look to the sky in awe. And at no time is that more true than when the heavens put on a light show when it's supposed to be dark.
Living in the northern part of the United States offers some unique and enlightening late night experiences. We have had several vibrant appearances in Montana's Big Sky country this summer and fall by the Northern Lights. Also called aurora borealis, NASA describes it as "colorful, dynamic and often visually delicate displays of an intricate dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth called space weather. When energetic particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they can cause the colorful glow that we call auroras."
"Science!" as Thomas Dolby belted out in the 1982 pop hit, "She Blinded Me with Science."
To me, there are two kinds of scientific Northern Lights displays. One of them is barely visible to the naked eye when it looks like there's kind of haze among the stars. On such occasions, a camera captures the color we cannot see. The other is when the northern lights are visible to the naked eye. In that case, a photo captures even more vibrant hues of red, pink, purple, green and/or blue.
Both of those instances happened several times on our property this year. And a reminder that it was practically pitch black outside when I took the photos below.
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| Can you say "bacon?" |
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| My house |
