Northern Lights on the Gunflint Trail!

Last night, I spent most of the night awake watching my dog Ellie.  She had an allergic reaction which caused hives to arise over much of her body.  Three antihistamines later, she was feeling (and looking) much better, but I kept checking on her regularly until nearly dawn.

In order to stay awake, I watched the movie Gettysburg, since it is the anniversary of that famous battle.  I shut out the lights so Ellie could sleep, and happened to glance out my front, north facing window and see the Aurora Borealis.

It was the most spectacular show I had seen in a long time.  Green, yellow, and red colors danced merrily across the sky.  When I took some pictures, I noticed that there was purple in the mix as well.

Plasma from a near miss Coronal Mass Ejection caused a snowplow effect sending plasma into Earth creating a G1 geomagnetic storm.  The loose electrons in the plasma excited the oxygen and nitrogen atoms in our atmosphere, and the atoms released the extra energy in the form of photons (light).  Thousands of those reactions per square centimeter per second cause the Auroras.  Green, yellow, and at least part of the red light was caused by a reaction with oxygen, and the purple (and possibly some red) lights were caused by a reaction with the nitrogen.

In order to photograph the Aurora Borealis, I used the night sky setting on my Panasonic DMC-FZ70.  The shutter was open 60 seconds.  I used a tripod and a 10 second timer to keep the picture from shaking for that time.