August 26, 2018 Auroras
Grand Rapids, MN
A slow-moving CME from a filament eruption on the sun a few days ago finally impacted Earth in the late day on August 25. The solar wind magnetic field component (Bz) stayed strongly south, in the mid negative teens, for many hours. This allowed the auroras to move fairly far south, and I ended up directly underneath them.
This would normally make for a spectacular night of shooting, but the moon was full, and the skies were hazy with forest fire smoke. It was difficult to make out any stars, and the moon-illuminated smoke obscured the auroras so that they only had a subtle appearance to the unaided eye. This required me to enhance the contrast and saturation on the shots a lot more than I normally would (I try not to touch those at all and, rather, prefer to adjust the shutter speed so the shot has the best exposure and contrast).
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| 10:18 PM over the Mississippi River in town. |
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| 11:23 PM in the Forest History Center, looking west. |
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| Near midnight on the Swamp Trail. |
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| Sitka was watching the auroras with me at 1:16 AM. |
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| High into the southern sky, the auroras fade into moon-illuminated smoke, 1:25 AM. |
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| A green corona appears overhead at 1:39 AM. |
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| Mesmerizing shapes. |
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| There are some crepuscular rays from the moon, smoke, and clouds. |
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