July 22-23, 2022 Auroras
Itasca County, Minnesota
I got some auroras on my birthday (July 22, in the evening)! My parents were in town, and after they went to bed, I decided to go north for a bit. I proceeded north out of town and could see surprisingly few auroras (or almost nothing) as I passed McKinney Lake, but it really wasn't very dark yet. The solar wind conditions were really good, so the auroras had to be coming out soon. I continued north to Little Long Lake and set up there. It's usually a pretty quiet spot, but in July and August, there are a lot of people from all over, visiting their northwoods cabins, so there was some activity on the lake. It wasn't bad. I just wanted to stay unnoticed as guests at this lake residence left and came past the boat landing where I was parked.
When I first pulled up to the boat landing, I took a quick peek and saw a double-banded aurora! That's usually pretty darn good. I got my cameras up and shooting and immediately called my parents to wake them up because I thought a really good show was imminent as the upper band appeared to be unstable and about to brighten and dance, but then the upper band disappeared entirely, so I had sent my parents outside to look up at nothing.
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| Two bands of aurorae. |
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| After the first band disappeared, a few tall pillars appeared. |
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| I had a second camera shooting a little farther out toward the lake, giving me a better-centered shot. |
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| To my east, picket fence auroras and STEVE appeared. |
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| STEVE (right) and the picket fence auroras (left). |
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