A Sense Of Wonderment

The aurora borealis recently made a surprise appearance in the skies over backyards across the US.

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There are bucket lists aplenty that were one step closer to full this past weekend. Photographers, astronomers, nature lovers, and night sky enthusiasts across the United States were treated to a dream come true when a geomagnetic storm set off a show of northern lights that hasn't been witnessed in nearly 20 years.

I stepped out into our backyard around 1am, Friday night/Saturday morning, and was instantly amazed.  Looking skyward, I could see some movement, and some color shifting.

Northern Lights sparkled in the sky above my house. I think this looks a bit like a bird or an angel.

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Shimmering above the treetops in my neighborhood.

The show is normally witnessed much further north. In Wisconsin that might be towards the Wisconsin/Canadian border, or at the tip of Door County. Alaska is known for these spectacular displays, as well as European countries like Sweden, Finland, and more.  But the storm was so strong this past week that it brought sightings of the aurora borealis as far south as Florida, Texas, and southern California.  It caused a lot of excitement!

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I once witnessed the light show off in the distance, while getting in some mileage on the track at my old high school, in a rural Wisconsin setting. I have longed to see it again ever since.  But my timing, or my location, haven't worked out. 

But this time, wow, my luck was on point! Armed with just my smartphone, I used the "night sight" setting, which allowed me to watch the show through the camera, and to take time lapse images which captured the experience in technicolor.

Using the "night sight" setting on my smartphone camera, I was able to view and photograph the aurora.

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The story was in the news a lot last week. Talk of one of the biggest geomagnetic storms in over two decades.  This would have the potential to produce auroras that could be seen in places they have never been seen before.  My husband signed up to get aurora alerts via email, so he was tracking the possibility of witnessing the light show. At first it looked like Friday, May 10, would be the biggest event. Then it looked like Saturday, May 11, would be. But these things are difficult to predict with certainty. They change quickly.  We opted to wait for Saturday night, and made plans to drive out to the Kettle Moraine Forest Southern Unit area.

Even so, before heading to bed on Friday night, I stepped out onto our backyard patio with my smartphone to take a look. With the naked eye I could make out some color, and trails of movement. But when I turned on my phone camera, and set it to the "night sight" setting, that is when the magic happened. I could see it so much better. I could make out more of the movement, a shimmer of sorts, and some of the colors. But when I snapped a short time-lapse photo, I was amazed at what I could see. Words fail, really. Though I exclaimed "wow!" about a hundred times.

"Wow!" is an understatement when it comes to viewing the northern lights in real-time.

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Millions witnessed the latest northern lights event.

I went inside and woke up my husband, telling him that he had to come outside and see this wonder for himself. So he came out to the patio with me, and looked up. Uh-huh...but when I snapped a photo and showed him, he was just as amazed as I was.  And then he went back to bed. :)

I stayed outside for about an hour, watching it shift across the sky, taking photo after photo. It was, quite honestly, very emotional. I could hardly believe that I was standing in my backyard witnessing this natural phenomenon in real-time.

I was thinking, too, about all the others doing the same thing across Wisconsin, the United States, and the world. All of us, beneath one sky, watching in awe. There are times, my friends, when the universe truly is spectacular.

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When I finally went inside to go to bed it took me a while to calm down and fall asleep. I was already making plans for the next night, which was supposed to be an even stronger storm.

But, like I said, the aurora is not fully predictable. We watched the alerts the following day, checked the strength of the solar storm about 50 times. We weren't sure it would be as intense. But we opted to go anyway.

We drove out to Kettle Moraine around 10:30 pm, arriving at Paradise Springs Nature Trail parking lot about 11:30.  I was relieved to see others there already, looking to see the lights. Our eyes adjusted to the  darkness after a few minutes. I did bring my regular camera, ready to take some photos, hopeful to get more clarity than I did with my phone. But that spectacular universe had other plans.

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The sky, this time, was quiet. We talked to someone who was packing up to leave. They had been there a while, full camera/tri-pod setup, and got a few shots about an hour before we arrived. They had been there the night before, and said it was incredible. But they were about to call it for the night.

We decided to walk across the road toward the prairie trails, where the Gotten cabin is located.

​Standing near the cabin we looked off into the distance and over the open field. There was a slight tint to the big open sky, but no shimmer.  ​​There were, however, stars.

The Gotten cabin beneath a starry, slightly tinted open sky.

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Thousands of stars. Accompanied by a waxing crescent moon. Not a sight to scoff at by any means.

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I took a few photos, with my smartphone again, and we stood silent, listening to the sounds of migrating bird calls surrounding us as they passed overhead.  We turned to head back across the road. That's when I saw a shooting star! We waited a moment, in case there might be another, and then walked on in the brisk night air, towards the parking area.

​Getting in the car, we re-checked the solar storm status, hoping for a resurgence of lights. But it didn't look promising. Waiting a few minutes more, windows open, just in case, we heard coyotes howling nearby. A haunting and beautiful sound. 

As we lingered, breathing in the woodsy fragrance of the forest, memories of my grandma's cozy cabin on a lake surfaced. The scent dislodging nostalgia for childhood days, and bringing it forward in my mind. I recalled looking skyward then, from the deck of the cabin, experiencing a child's sense of wonderment  at the sheer density of the twinkling stars and the universe so far above me.  A feeling that would hover over me pleasantly on the drive back home.

So many stars in a slightly tinted sky.