Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
About those Northern Lights
Like most of you we heard there would be a spectacular display of Aurora Borealis over the weekend; the Northern Lights would reach much further south than is typical. The Pacific Northwest was included, and clear skies were in the forecast.
I also read that the best time to see them Friday night was between 12:00 am and 3:00 am when I expected to be sound asleep, so I conveniently forgot all about it, until I saw the magnificent pictures everywhere the next day.
So when I heard that Seattle was promised another display Saturday night, I made some effort to see them. But not from our house, we don’t face north, and are surrounded by trees; my dear husband offered to drive me to a high spot nearby.
We arrived around 10:00 pm and could see Renton below, ablaze with manmade light, and the Seattle skyline in the distance.
Other folks began to arrive and wondered where the show was.
“There’s something there,” I said “the sky should be inky dark, but there’s some kind of haze if you look closely.” Bob was not impressed, and I too had my doubts.
Yes, we saw smudges of color hanging over the horizon and I snapped a few photos. And I suspected if we waited longer (but how much longer? hours?) we might see the dancing colors in the sky everyone had raved about. But we were both SO tired, and less than 30 minutes later, headed back home.
The pictures aren’t great but I do see more color in the images than I saw with my naked eye.
The Northern Lights might show up again tonight. I envy those folks who got a good view out their front door. I wish I was camping somewhere away from the city lights but alas, I am home, still not facing north and still surrounded by trees. And I quite can’t imagine getting up after midnight to try to find them again (nor trying to convince my husband to drive me somewhere.)
Sigh.
This will have to do.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
There was definitely some aurora activity there, Suzanne. What you saw is what I saw two years ago in October–just a faint gray fog that turned green when exposed with a camera. I am so blessed to live in our rural area and to simply walk out my front door Friday and see the “miracle.” Like you after, 2.5 hours, I was dead on my feet from taking a 100 shots and feeling the emotion behind the experience. It still took me 2 more hours to fall asleep. At least you tried! The images are quite beautiful!
Thanks, Terri. 🙂 I knew there was some smudge of color hanging in the horizon, and my phone brought some of it out. But you really have to be away from the city lights and be willing to stay up REALLY late a LONG time to see them in all their glory. You’re fortunate to live in a truly rural area and witness them from your home. What a treat! We were so tired, and just didn’t have it in us to travel somewhere to find them late at night. We saw them once before on a cruise to Alaska but I didn’t get good pictures. I’m hoping there’s another cruise in our future.
By the way, when you get a chance, I posted some on my blog today. You might have seen them on Facebook, too. https://secondwindleisure.com/2024/05/12/sunday-stills-monthly-color-challenge-relaxing-cobalt-blue/
Yes! Wonderful! I hope to come back to your challenge with some cobalt blue later this week. 🙂
Light pollution is one of my many pet peeves, along with noise pollution, air pollution, people who don’t pick up after their dogs… well, you get my drift. I’m a curmudgeon and not really ashamed of it. Thanks for making the effort to share the Northern lights with us.
Yes, all forms of pollution are a bummer! I did manage to get a glimpse of some color, though not much. Maybe next time we’ll try to do a camping trip where they’d be more visible. Or book another cruise to Alaska where they are more likely to be seen.
I love the beautiful panorama photos! I could sit there for hours… ❤️😊 I saw nothing of the aurora since I was sawing logs…
Thanks, John. I get it! We were back home in bed by 10:30. If only those northern lights showed up before bedtime!
That would be difficult to see…
We were supposed to be able to see some activity here in Northern Indiana – Friday night was clear but he forgot! Saturday night he slipped away at 11:00 PM to the school on the hill in the country to see the lights. He was very disappointed as were all the others who had the same idea. He said there was a faint look of lines that shifted but the color was just a gray… Love your photos anyway!
Thanks so much! I’m guess I’m not alone at being slightly underwhelmed at what I saw. At least we tried! 🙂
At least you made the effort Susanne, and you got some great nighttime city photos.
Thanks, Graham. Just couldn’t imagine getting somewhere, away from the city lights, so late. Have to plan better next time if there is one.
We were unable to see anything in central Illinois because of extensive cloud cover. Shucks! And I stayed up late too.
Hard to get everything to align perfectly!
Your experience reflects ours! We didn’t bother looking on Friday night as we assumed the lights wouldn’t be up to much from our suburban London garden. When we saw all the photos the next morning that people had taken in our neighbourhood we realised our mistake, so made sure to look for them on Saturday. But the ‘show’ was much more feeble, just a few pale streaks in the sky which soon disappeared. And last night we didn’t even get that! Thankfully we have seen the lights in the past, in Norway, but it would have been cool to see them from our own back garden!
Glad to hear I’m not alone! I guess the big show was Friday night, but we didn’t think we could see anything from our house and were too tired to go anywhere that late. Nice you saw them in Norway.
We saw them on our cruise to Alaska last year but didn’t stay up long enough to get the best pictures. Maybe next time!
We looked on the second night, but there was nothing except low cloud cover. At least you tried!
Best wishes, Pete.
I’m glad we tried. No regrets. 🙂 I’ll try to plan better next time if we get another visitation.