Auroras in the Mist … and in the Dark

Michigan has been awash in Northern Lights for the last several days, and this morning’s NOAA/NWS Space Weather Alert Email says there’s a good chance much of Michigan can see them tonight as well!

I encourage you to click to subscribe to that email, and also to check out our post about how to see the Northern Lights in Michigan. You will also want to join the Michigan Aurora Chasers group on Facebook where I first saw the photo above from last June at Little Girl’s Point on Lake Superior and where Aubrieta is one of the resident aurora experts. View more of her work on Facebook and on her website. She also shared the photo below yesterday. While I can’t link to it, I wanted to what she wrote as a cautionary tale to remind you to double check your gear before you are go outside in the dark!

On September 30 at 2:00 a.m., I made a once-in-a-lifetime mistake. I set out on a hike to the end of the Hunters Point Trail in Copper Harbor, hoping to shoot the Aurora over Porter’s Island. I was fried from shooting the Aurora three nights in a row, so I packed light: a small camera bag, a headlamp, a flashlight and a fanny pack. Having shot for hours, the battery in the camera and the headlamp were nearly done, but I knew I had a spare camera battery and my Fenix flashlight as backup. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the battery in my Fenix flashlight was dead. I got exactly one shot of the scene before my camera battery died. This one. I plugged in my spare camera battery but it was dead, too. So, I headed back up the trail in near-darkness with just the stars and Aurora to light my way. Those of you who know about my life-long obsession with flashlights, will think this is a tall tale. But it’s a true story! As is the fact that all my batteries are re-charging now, including the one that operates my brain. How I love these Keweenaw nights!