The technical term for the atmospheric phenomenon known as the Northern Lights is the Aurora Borealis.
In the last couple of months we have been blessed with this spectacular solar light show several times. I didn’t personally see them because they appeared too late in the evening for me to stay up, but several people posted pictures of the lights on Facebook.
So what causes the Northern Lights?
When a solar storm comes towards the earth, some of the energy and small particles can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into the earth’s atmosphere. This causes the beautiful displays of light. Oxygen gives off green and red light while nitrogen glows blue and purple.
I’m not upset that I personally missed these events. Back in 1985 I was blessed with an aurora that was far superior to anything we’ll ever see around here.
On September 10th of that year a friend of mine and I went to northern Quebec along the Arctic Circle to hunt caribou. One evening that week we stayed in the dining tent to sip a few beers and swap stories with some other hunters, but when we left, we couldn’t believe the spectacular solar display that we saw.
The entire sky was lit up in dancing colors. It was bright enough that you could have sat along the lake shore and read a newspaper. The bands of color continued for more than two hours.
Besides the aurora, being able to sit along the river and see a thousand caribou a day migrating north where they will winter was a magnificent sight as well.
And then there were the lake trout. It became a game to see who could cast out a silver lure and get it back to shore without having a five to seven-pounder on your hook. We cooked one every day on the driftwood coals and ate it for lunch.
It seems odd to me that the Northern Lights were almost common this year. Thinking back to the years that have passed, I only saw them a handful of times at the most. Usually around here if we see the Northern Lights it’s just a red glow in the northern sky.
I remember Pat and I were sitting in our hot tub one night and noticed a red glow through the trees in the backyard. It almost looked like there was a barn fire or something off in the distance. Finally I realized it was just the Northern Lights.
Every couple of years we also have meteor showers. You know, shooting stars. They too are usually too late at night to enjoy. Several times we would go up on our hill with some lawn chairs to watch nature’s fireworks.
With no yard lights nearby we would see a few streaks of light cross the sky, but I guess after you’ve seen a few, you lose the excitement or run out of wishes.
It was in the fall many years ago when I saw the best meteor shower ever.
Bow season was in full swing, so it had to be in October. Randy and I had gone up the hill that morning while it was still dark so we would be in our tree stands before it was light enough to shoot.
The light show was unbelievable. Shooting stars shot across the sky one after another sometime two or three at a time just seconds apart. It made me glad I got up so early.
There are many things out there that we don’t really understand and every once in a while we witness nature at its finest. It’s just fun to be along for the ride.