The Northern Lights

Earlier this week when I heard that the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) were going to be visible as far south as Connecticut, I was skeptical to say the least. The Northern Lights are a natural light display in the Earth’s sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar wind. These disturbances are sometimes strong enough to alter the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma. I’ve wanted to see this these mysterious optics since I was a young boy. When I look at the Northern Lights I often wonder, does it really dance in the sky? Can this be real? I had to go find out and see for myself. I researched optimal locations in the Northeast that would get me a good view of the lights. I was determined to get a glimpse and I hoped that the weather would cooperate.

I settled on a location that I had been to before, Saville Dam in Barkhamsted, CT. I took my oldest son with me and after dinner, we made the hour and twenty minute drive up to the dam. On the way up there, we experienced a good omen, driving past a Barred Owl majestically perched on a wooden post. I turned around and to return for a quick picture. As we pulled up to the owl, it did not move nor show any fear. It slowly looked my way, pooped and lifted off without a sound. When we got to the dam, it was cloudy and the cold was bone-chilling. I could see my breath rising up through the darkness. I was grateful to have remembered my winter jacket for this excursion. With all of the cloud cover in the sky, our chances of catching a glimpse didn’t look good. So after about 30-40 minutes of hanging out in the darkness, we left and ventured further north to find a better location. We drove around for another 2 hours without any luck. We were unable to find any areas with a clear view of the sky. . . and turned around to head home in defeat.

My intuition told me to pass the dam on our way home. When we returned to Barkhamsted, we were shocked to find that there was a break in the clouds and we could see most of the night sky! After parking and making the trek back to our previous the location, we could faintly see what looked like a glow of a green flashlight over the horizon. At first I thought someone was messing with us. I took several pictures with my DSLR, but nothing showed up. I was forced to use “Night Mode” feature on my cell phone – and there it was. There is a lot of noise in the photo and it is really low quality, but I am happy. A grainy photo is much better than no photo at all! Within a few minutes, the clouds had returned and the green glow over the horizon was gone. It was 1AM and I knew that even if the clouds moved away, the lights would no longer be visible.

Even though we found success on this night, to be able to see the lights at full power is firmly placed near the top of my bucket list. Until that time comes, my urge to see them again will only continue to grow.