Tag Archives: Northern Lights

Ice Road Aurora Borealis

Year 9, ,

While not the best part of the Northern Lights display from last night, this pic does show the “Ice Road” on which I was parked last night on a frozen lake north of Two Harbors. I turned on my car’s parking lights to illuminate the scene. The temperature was minus 25F at the time!

Ice Road Aurora Borealis in Northern Minnesota

Additional Photos of last night’s Northern Lights Display

Two Hours Later at McQuade Harbor … 20 minutes before sunrise. Some fishermen get ready for the morning fish!

Forest Fire Burnout Aurora Borealis

Year 8,
Ever wonder what an Aurora looks like against a forest fire burned out background?! I wondered also and drove up to the Greenwood Forest Fire Burn Area last night (27,000 acres). This is actually the Sand River (45 miles north of Two Harbors). At this specific location as one looks up the river, lots of the smaller trees burned out, and some of the pines. Amazingly right next to burned out pines there will be sections of untouched trees. One other interesting fact on the night of November 3rd, the backwaters of the river were iced over and there was about one inch of snow on the ground (temperature was 19F).
Camera settings: ISO 3200, Aperture 2.2, Exposure 6 seconds (Sony a6300)
.
This second image is what the sky looked like as I waited and hoped Lady Aurora would come out and dance. Notice the Big Dipper waiting to get filled (it did). You may need to maximize these images to get the full effect.
This final photograph was taken about 11:15 pm at Greenwood Lake (40 miles north of Two Harbors … just out of the burn area). Although my drive between locations was only 8 minutes, I about had a cow when I pulled into the public access.
Sub-Storm! This is what I actually was seeing with my naked eye. The Aurora filled the sky up to the zenith.
Camera settings: ISO 3200; Aperture 2.2; Exposure 4 seconds (Sony a6300)

Northern Lights Forecasting: Aurora-Alerts App

Background, Year 8

After consideration and research I have changed my recommended Northern Lights / Forecasting App to Aurora-Alerts. This review is for their paid app (i.e. worth a few dollars). My annotated screenshots given later in this blog post show the interface and explain functionality. I like the clean, easy to follow user interface. The alerts work fine and are updated twice per hour.

Aurora-Alerts is available for Apple or Android devices. See their web site to learn more, or download / install a local copy. I also have SpaceWeatherLive’s app installed on my devices and receive their alerts. While I love their alerts and news, I suspect their app would be very confusing to a person who is not real knowledgeable about the Northern Lights. As always, I do NOT receive any money for my reviews & recommendations.

The Northern Lights Lake Superior Region Facebook Group which I founded and where I am one of the two admins has over 6,000 members. This Facebook Groups helps one know when lights are expected to be active near Lake Superior, and enjoy photographs of the Aurora taken from the local region (i.e. not Alaska or Norway, etc.). A Facebook account is required to join / read posts in the group.

Finally, don’t forget to read the Northern Lights page of this blog. It has many helpful explanations and links concerning the Northern Lights.

Aurora-Alerts Splash Screen (current conditions)

Aurora-Alerts Forecasts

Ovation Aurora & Trend Data (from NASA and NOAA)

Alerts (sent out twice per hour)