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View ProfilesPublished May 15, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.
I changed my vacation plans and flew from California to Vermont, with less than a day to spare, so I could catch the total solar eclipse on April 8. There was no way I was going to miss the experience. Conveniently, astronomers knew exactly when and where it was going to happen, weather permitting. That meant all manner of planners, from hotel owners to traffic flaggers, had plenty of time to prepare. Decades, in fact. The only requirement was to look up, at the right moment, to behold three glorious minutes of awe-inspiring celestial spectacle.
Exactly 32 days later, the star of our solar system put on another show — this one, unscheduled.
Last week, space weather watchers noticed a large number of powerful solar flares erupting on the sun's surface. Such coronal mass ejections emit clouds of charged particles that, if aimed earthward at just the right angle, can manifest as shimmering colors in the night sky — aka the northern lights or aurora borealis.
This particular geomagnetic sun storm was so big, it lit up the heavens — in streaks of magenta, blue, green and purple — across the globe. People saw the display from as far south as Florida.
The lucky ones, that is. Predicting the paths of extraterrestrial orbs, and where they'll cross in space, is a pretty exact science. But the aurora borealis is a fickler phenomenon. Northern lights enthusiasts often travel to places like Norway, Alaska and Iceland, where they're more likely to be visible. Even then, there's no guarantee: Chasing them requires patience, drive, faith and, more often than not, really warm clothes; also, countless nighttime hours not sleeping.
Last Friday afternoon on Vermont Public, I heard Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium senior meteorologist Mark Breen make a compelling case for sky-watching that night. His recommended time frame would accommodate my evening plans: dinner with neighbors. Afterward, when my partner, Tim, and I emerged onto Lakeview Terrace in Burlington, a guy on the street excitedly told us the aurora borealis had just been on display above us. He had pictures. But looking up, we couldn't see squat. Back home, I used my iPhone to scan the sky, as instructed, and sure enough, the image had some color that I couldn't detect with my naked eye. I half-heartedly suggested to Tim that we drive north, but instead, we went to bed.
Shortly before that, Colchester resident Adam Silverman had posted on social media: "Get outside now, Vermont." A hobby photographer who works as public information officer for the Vermont State Police, Silverman found the aurora borealis on dazzling display in Milton, along Duffy and Marrs Hollow roads, and he was shooting up a storm. The 45-year-old former journalist stayed out until 2:30 a.m. and only came in because he hadn't eaten dinner and forgot to bring snacks.
Every other time he's photographed the northern lights in Vermont over the past 20 years, Silverman has set up his camera on a tripod facing north because "that's where they are," he noted. This time, however, the corona was directly overhead, and the colorful lights were "pulsating, shimmering, dancing" all around him. "Never in a million years did I expect ... to have trouble figuring out which direction to point my camera," Silverman quipped. "It was an amazing night. My jaw is still on the floor."
And, like so many other folks who missed it, I'm kicking myself for not making more of an effort to notice a second stunning heads-up from the universe.
Tags: From the Publisher
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