The evening started out with many familiar faces gathering for the Ely Field Naturalists summer potluck at Lucky Boy Farm. The food was delicious, and catching up with folks was fabulous! This was followed by a heart-warming musical performance by our friend Jerry Vandiver from Nashville, Tennessee. Just before the concert came to an end, a Yellow Alert for auroras popped up on my phone. I’ll admit to packing it up quickly and saying my goodbyes in haste as I made my way to the truck which was already loaded with camera gear and supplies for staying out into the wee hours of the morning.
Driving toward a familiar location, there were very bright colorful curtains of light high above the tree line. You can see in this first image how strong the breeze was. The shutter was open for 13 seconds, which often will keep most movement to a minimum. It was 9:37 and just at the end of Nautical Twilight, making it barely bright enough outside to see without using some other light source.
The Perseid Meteor Shower is coming to an end, but there were still plenty of shooting stars to cause ooos and ahhs throughout the night! As the sky grew darker, the clouds began to move in.
The parking lot was now full, and the entire northern horizon was dancing up a storm!
Shortly after 10:30 a proton arc became visible just east of the aurora show.
Directly across from it, we could see another piece of the arc lighting up the sky.
Within minutes the two pieces seemed to join together, creating an X with the Milky Way.
It really was a sight to behold. As described to me by my meteorologist friend Bob Conzemius, a proton arc is basically a band of auroras caused by protons, whereas most auroras are caused by electrons.
As the night went on, more and more friendly faces joined in on the fun of watching the night sky in action! Admittedly it is difficult to stand still for a 25 second exposure, but I think this group did pretty darn good!
If you look closely you can see two meteors zipping across the Milky Way in this image.
As the lights died down, people began to leave the area. I stopped at a few other locations as I began the trek home. Passing a small clearing, I swore I could see the show start back up again. It probably comes as no shock that I turned around and went out to the lake. It was 1 am and I arrived just in time to pick up some fantastic movement and colorful structure before the thunderstorm took over the sky.
