If you associate “Northern Lights” with the Arctic Circle, you’re not alone. But this week Washington State (and other parts of the U.S.) got in on the act, due to unusual solar activity (coronal mass ejection) last week.
The View From Roche Harbor on San Juan Island
Chris Teren spent Monday night at Roche Harbor on San Juan Island.
“I set up a Nikon D700 DSLR on a very sturdy triple with a 24-70 mm f2.8 Sigma lens, which I set at f3.5 and wide open at 24mm. I set the camera to take sequential photos with an 8 second exposure, and keep taking them as long as the memory card had room,” he said.
Watch his video at Seattle’s KING-5.
The View From Anacortes
Seattle-area photographer Chuck Hilliard captured the lights over the San Juan Islands from Anacortes. You can see why his studio is called Light of the Moon Photography. This time lapse is shown at 10 frames per second.
Watch his video on Flickr.
What Is The Aurora Borealis?
Northern lights – the aurora borealis – is “caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.” When these electrons collide with Earth’s atmosphere, the air “lights up rather like what happens in a fluorescent light tube.”
Red colouring is also due to oxygen with a contribution from nitrogen. The violet we often see at the lower edge of the aurora is due to nitrogen, as is most blue colouring. The charged particles originate from the sun, and it is the ‘weather’ conditions on the sun that decide whether or not we will see the aurora.
Watch this illustrated explanation at Space.com.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com