Chasing Auroras- Part 1

I live in the southwestern tip of Canada, where you'll have a better chance of spotting the sasquatch than auroras; they are called northern lights for a reason. I remember catching a glimpse of them back in 2003, during the last solar peak, when I was living in another city within the metro area. That city was not as light polluted as the downtown core. Even so, I don't remember the northern lights being very colorful- they were more like a haze in the sky. Given all the solar excitement this year, I thought it would be a good idea to go out at night, when a flare storm was announced, and capture some light action.

I had a mission impossible ahead of me. Taking photographs at night is difficult because of the weak lighting, made even more complicated when one's camera is not powerful enough to adequately handle such conditions, compounded by the fact that one hasn't taken the time to properly learn the settings for shooting in the dark (and daytime for that matter), let alone photographing that most nebulous of planetary events, the Aurora Borealis, or Aurora Australis, if you're living la vida upside-down.

The evening sky began to give way to the encroaching night. I used my Pixel 7 to capture the sights as I made my way to the edge of the city. Had it always been this blue? The hues were wonderful and pronounced.

Let me digress here and imagine what it was like for a peasant in the middle ages trying to make sense of the aurora borealis, at a time when people thought the earth was the flat center of the universe. Or imagine being a caveman and looking up to see the sky shimmer in an array of colours. ¡Ay, caramba! Is it any wonder that they created their own myths and legends? Most of us nowadays have a rudimentary understanding of our position relative to the sun, and the mechanics of the sun itself, so we view the aurora for the natural oddity that it is. Not so long ago, we thought it was leprechaun magic dust.

Any relatively large downtown is not the best place to see the northern lights because of the brightness that casts its pale mantle over the stars. Thankfully, there are many parks in the periphery of Van city, far enough away to actually see stars.

It was already getting dark by the time I arrived at the park. I looked up and saw no auroras up above but was encouraged by the few stars I could see. The afterglow of sunset was still visible in the west, and in the east, the downtown lights looked down mockingly at those of us who had gathered there to see the show.

I set up my tripod near the middle of the park, and so, the wait for auroras began.