A green curtain of aurora borealis, or northern lights, arcs across the night sky over Findland on october 1,2001. A bright full moon provides foreground ilumination of a tree that otherwise in silhouette againts aurora streamers of emerald with a tinge of ruby. Fueled by storms on the Sun whise outburst inpact Earths magnetic field, such near sky light displays are common at high lattitudes. Sometimes, however , during extremely powerful solar eruptiobs, overhead blazes have reached will in the tropics.
Constellation Orion rising above the Pike National Forest in Colorado. The three bluish stars of the hunters belt fly in formation toward the upper right of the frame. Just below them, a fainter reddish smear reveals the Great Orion Nebula. The false dawn is due to the lights of Colorado springs about 50 miles away.
Source: backyard astrophotography.
