Backwoods Blog .176

AURORA BOREALIS

Backwoods Blog;

in the woods and on the road…

Aurora Borealis (2024)

The night sky featured several cosmological events during the month of October; the aurora borealis, the dramatic appearance of comet “Bob” and a supermoon with perigee. I have never had much luck capturing the northern lights on camera, but with my iPhone 15 I finally scored. The amazing aurora borealis was barely visible with the naked eye, but the camera eye captured the cosmic show. The cloud cover was stubbornly intermittent (which blocked the visual effect), but with patience and a warm, heavy jacket I was able to hang in there and get some shots. Due to a massive solar flare and severe geomagnetic storm, the northern lights were reported as being seen as far south as Texas, but I’m not sure if you can still call them the northern lights at that point. And, as you can see, now I have pictures…

The long and difficult to pronounce Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), otherwise known as comet “Bob” or “The Great Comet of 2024” is the brightest comet viewed from earth since the Hale-Bopp comet in 1997, twenty seven years ago. Again, with the unaided eye I wasn’t able to see as clearly as I’d like, but the iPhone captured the image and brought it to life. Linda has an iPhone 13 (compared to my iPhone 15) and the difference between the two iPhone cameras is dramatic. We were both shooting the same subject matter at the same time, but the results were remarkably different (I joked that perhaps it wasn’t the camera). Anyways, we now have a collection of photos to go along with our shared moments watching the north night sky. Keep an eye to the sky everyone!

In the woods,

Dave

December 11, 2024