Northern Lights

In spite of all it's shortcomings one of the redeeming virtues of Facebook is its Groups.  Whether it is smoked meats, brick oven cooking, hunting and fishing, history, sports or your high school class the Groups deliver good stuff regularly.  Last evening a couple of alerts crossed the screen of my hand-held device and outdoors I went.  It was a good time to look north to the Big Dipper.  

 

Northern Lights, people.

 

Got myself outside for a dose of the Aurora Borealis.

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun's corona.

As a consequence of a strong geomagnetic storm that occurred over the weekend last evening was a terrific opportunity to view the aurora borealis - the northern lights - in Canada and northern United States.

We might get some more tonight.

Meanwhile, I suggest you do two things.  If you have a Facebook account or access to the interweb join some northern lights groups and sign-up for alerts for your geolocation.  Secondly, use your device.  While the northern lights may be visible to the naked eye your device will bring them to life.  The extended exposure and built-in filters will bring to life wavelengths not visible to the naked eye.  Same for the use of a photo-editing tool which will allow you to manipulate aperture, exposure and other elements after the fact.

Fingers-crossed for clear skies.