October 8th, 2024
A mesmerizing display of northern lights appeared in our skies last night, as well as the night before. Until recently, I thought this phenomena could only be observed by traveling to Alaska or Finland or areas close to the arctic circle. However, in May of this year, we experienced a major northern lights event here in Marblehead, which broke down every preconceived notion that I had. Apparently we are at the peak of an 11 year solar cycle whereby the sun's magnetic poles FLIP! Who knew?! Near the end of the cycle, coronal mass ejections (CME's) become more prevalent. Chunks of the sun are launched towards earth and fluoresce when they come into contact with earth's charged particles causing the display of lights.
There are many apps that try to predict the appearance of the northern lights and as of now, am using the "My Aurora Forecast" app which tracks much of the data based on zip code and in real time.
The forecast was looking good for Friday and Saturday nights (October 4th and 5th) but ultimately it didn't pan out. On Sunday, things in the atmosphere got juicy (these are very temperamental events!) and an unexpected display of lights was observed on Sunday and Monday (October 6th and 7th).
On the first night, went to Chandler Hovey Park and ended up seeing the tail end of the aurora before it faded completely. From my vantage point, could not observe the northern lights with the naked eye as light pollution from Beverly interfered. The following evening, checked the app and conditions were ripe for an aurora. I set up at Fort Sewall to try to capture something different, and was surprised to see a huge purple streak in the sky a bit more east than north.
Here are photos from both nights, enjoy!
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