September 29, 2016 Auroras

White Bear Lake, Minnesota

I was staying in the Twin Cities this week for a conference. It turns out this was also an active week for auroras.  I would rather have been home, but skies were rather cloudy there, so I guess it was better off to be a little farther south.  I had seen auroras on my drive down two nights prior, and on the following night, skies were cloudy, but auroras would have been visible with clear skies.  On my third night in the Twin Cities, the solar wind conditions were still conducive to auroras, and the skies cleared.  Where I was staying, I had a good view to my north out of the window.  I would be able to see the auroras from bed.  That sounds like a great way to see them without too much effort, but it also means being comfortable enough to fall asleep, which caused me to miss the best part of the show.

It started with a band of auroras that was barely visible on the horizon.  I set up the camera and took a few shots out the window.

The initial green band appears.

Things began to look a little more interesting, so I decided to step outside and take a few pictures. Of course, everyone else had already gone to bed, so I tried to be as quiet as possible. The auroras started to dance a bit, but they quickly quieted down again.

The auroras started to dance but soon quieted back down.

I needed to do a bit of driving around the next day, so I decided to go back in and get some sleep. However, the green band began to grow again. I decided to monitor it from bed, opening my eyes once in a while to monitor the band. Eventually, I fell asleep and did not wake up until the first twilight was on the horizon, and the auroras had faded almost entirely. Checking social media the next day, I saw some pretty nice posts from the substorm that started shortly after I fell asleep.

The second auroral arc.

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