Isle Royale Sunset and the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Round Is. sunset

Round Is. sunset, photo by yooper1949.

Carl took this photo at Herring Bay in Isle Royale National Park. It’s part of his super-cool Isle Royale National Park (slideshow) which, in addition to having many more kayak photos, has some incredible views of this amazing Michigan park including a sweet shot of the northern lights over Amygdaloid Island Ranger Station (plus he has them uploaded at “wallpaper size”).

This weekend, July 17-20, 2008, head up to Grand Marais for the 24th annual Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium. It’s the oldest kayaking symposium on the Great Lakes and offers paddlers of all ages and abilities for a weekend packed with fun and learning opportunities including on-the-water classes, classroom lectures, kayak demos and vendors, social events, a race and of course plenty of opportunities to paddle including guided tours of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Keynote speakers this year are adventure filmmaker and expedition sea-kayaker Justine Curgenven and Sam Crowley, who circumnavigated Ireland in 2007 in a sea kayak.

Rivers from the sun, unlocking the mystery of the Northern Lights with THEMIS

Posted on by farlane

November 7-8, 2004 Aurora Borealis by Brian & Shawn Malone

November 7-8, 2004 Aurora Borealis, photo by Brian & Shawn Malone

This photo is one of many taken by Upper Peninsula photographers Brian & Shawn Malone of LakeSuperiorPhoto.com from the fantastic Northern Lights displays of November 2004 and other years. They have a ton more from all kinds of U.P. places and events that you can view and purchase if you’re so inclined.

The source of the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) has long been a beautiful mystery. Last week, however, CNN featured an article on the possible discovery of the energy source for the Northern Lights.

New data from NASA’s Themis mission, a quintet of satellites launched this winter, found the energy comes from a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth’s upper atmosphere to the sun.

The energy is then abruptly released in the form of a shimmering display of lights…

You can get more in the article above or head over to NASA’s THEMIS mission for all the crunchy details including some multimedia (which in turn includes the THEMIS Mission Trailer – guaranteed to get your inner geek jumping!). Also see the THEMIS video & image gallery at the University of California – Berkley. Themis was the Greek goddess of justice (aka “the blindfold lady”) and the daughter of sky god Uranus and earth goddess Gaia.

Manabezho Falls in the Porcupine Mountains State Park

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Manabezho Falls, long exposure

Manabezho Falls, long exposure, photo by DA2Brian.

GoWaterfalling’s page on Manebezho Falls says:

The Manabezho Falls are part of the Presque Isle River’s spectacular final dash to Lake Superior. The entire 1 mile stretch is very beautiful, with lots of bare rock and rapids. It is easily accessible from the Presque Isle entrance off of CR-519 on the western end of the park…

Manido Falls are just short distance upstream. Nawadaha Falls is a bit farther upstream. Downstream of Manabezho the river plunges into a narrow gorge. The “falls” there have no name, but they are quite interesting.

The falls are located in the Porcupine Mountains State Park and you can see more photos of Manabehzho Falls on Flickr (slideshow) and also check out the Porcupine Mountains group!

I’m pretty sure that “Manabehzo” is Manabozho, the Ojibwa/Algonquin trickster and messenger of the Great Spirit. For more about this colorful figure, check out Manabozho, the Mischief-maker by Rick Walton.

Star Trails, the Perseid Meteor Shower and the Tears of St. Lawrence

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

662px-Perseid_Meteor

2009 Update: The best time to watch the Persied meteor shower in Michigan is TONIGHT (August 11-12, 2009).

The peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower was last night. Postpurchase says he had intended to catch the peak of the perseid meteor shower last night but (alas) the clouds decided not to cooperate. Although last night was the peak, you can see them tonight and I saw a bunch early this morning! (in fact, there was a recent report of Northern Lights at our Northern Lights Log on Absolute Michigan)

SPACE.com has this (and more) to say about the Perseid meteor shower:

Every August, when many people are vacationing in the country where skies are dark, the best-known meteor shower makes its appearance…

The event is also known as “The Tears of St. Lawrence.”

Laurentius, a Christian deacon, is said to have been martyred by the Romans in 258 AD on an iron outdoor stove. It was in the midst of this torture that Laurentius cried out: “I am already roasted on one side and, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other.”

The saint’s death was commemorated on his feast day, Aug. 10. King Phillip II of Spain built his monastery place the “Escorial,” on the plan of the holy gridiron. And the abundance of shooting stars seen annually between approximately Aug. 8 and 14 have come to be known as St. Lawrence’s “fiery tears.”

Wikipedia’s Persied entry adds viewing tips:

The shower is visible from mid-July each year, with the greatest activity between August 8 and 14, peaking about August 12. During the peak, the rate of meteors reaches 60 or more per hour. They can be seen all across the sky, but because of the path of Swift-Tuttle’s orbit, Perseids are mostly visible on the northern hemisphere.

To experience the shower in its full, one should observe in the dark of a clear moonless night, from a point far outside any large cities, where stars are not dimmed by light pollution. The Perseids have a broad peak, so the shower is visible for several nights. On any given night, activity starts slowly in the evening but picks up by 11 p.m., when the radiant gets reasonably high in the sky. The meteor rate increases steadily through the night as the radiant rises higher, peaking just before the sky starts to get light, roughly 1½ to 2 hours before sunrise.

Northern Lake, Northern Lights

Posted on by farlane

Northern Lights by Harry Thomas

Northern Lights, photo by Harry Thomas

My friend Harry sent me this photo of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) over North Lake Leelanau. He says that at about 2am on a very windy Tuesday night, the neighbor’s sailboat came off the mooring. He got up to check his boat and got a light show! And yes, that is a shooting star in the top right … how amazing!

I thought I had the comprehensive Northern Lights post already on Michigan in Pictures. Turns out not. I’m not sure that this is, but if you add links to more Michigan Northern Lights photos in the comments and I include a link to the Michigan in Pictures northern lights tag, we’ll have a good start!

No post about the Northern Lights is complete without a link to the Michigan Tech based Aurora Page, which has been a source for Information, links and images about the “Northern Lights” on-line since the Web began. The site’s creator, Michael Dolan, took some great photos of the Northern Lights over Lake Superior (click the images when you get there for best quality images) and this site is simply the best Aurora Borealis resource on the internet.

Also in the U.P., Ann and John Mahan have an Aurora Borealis gallery that has a lot of Upper Peninsula photos (as well as others from the Great Lakes region). They have some cool books too! You can get some more Lake Superior aurora shots from Shawn & Brian Malone.

Heading back to Leelanau County, photographer Ken Scott has some Northern Lights in his online gallery (more in his books as well!). While we’re in Leelanau, I guess I can add a link to my Northern Lights gallery on Leelanau.com (I have a few are wallpaper-sized on Flickr and there’s some Northern Lights backgrounds on this page). In the interests of completeness, I better include a link to Wikipedia’s Aurora entry.

Keep your eyes on the skies, because Northern Lights often come in waves and if you DO see them, be sure to post them on the Michigan Northern Lights Log on Absolute Michigan!

Michigan Fireworks Extravaganza … now with added Northern Lights

Posted on by farlane

Copper Harbor Fireworks, with Northern Lights

July 4th, 2006 by aragirn

This morning I looked at fireworks photos from this year’s Independence Day fireworks displays at Sylvan Lake, Muskegon, Schoolcraft, Detroit, Traverse City, Lansing, Bay City, Jackson, Wyandotte, Lost Lake Woods, Rockford, Ann Arbor, Flint, West Branch, Kensington Park, Detroit and even my hometown of Leland. They came in classic red, white and blue,  understated yellow, even black & white. There were photos of the crowd, the fireworks barge, photos from who knows where and even one in my inbox from Saginaw. Had I had the link for the Michigan Fireworks page, I could have driven around to some of them!

In the end, I thought it best  to wait until next year to allow folks to upload their photos from July 4, 2007 (and the 3rd, or whenever your town celebrates) and look to last year.

When I did, I realized that there’s nothing that can compare to watching the July 4th fireworks celebration at Copper Harbor, Michigan and having the Northern Lights come out.

Lake Superior, Presque Isle, Gales of November

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Lake Superior,Presque Isle, Gales of November
photo by Shawn Malone, LakeSuperiorPhoto.com

About this photo, Shawn writes:

Storm was 40 knot NW gales creating 10-15 ft waves at Presque Isle Park in Marquette, MI. Water appears that color (glass green/blue) under those conditions due to gray sky, water depth among other things. It’s very brutal to stand out there and try to photograph with ice pellets hitting you in the face … water getting in your equipment from freezing spray, steadying a camera in those winds. After going to that spot many times in similar conditions, I couldn’t recreate that wave pattern if I tried 1000 times over. This is one of my most popular images, and I consider a gift from a higher power. Most recently, It was chosen for “Art on the Rocks” Fine art show poster 2006 and Lake Superior Magazine calendar 2006.

LakeSuperiorPhoto.com is absolutely packed with photos of Superior and the UP by Shawn & Brian Malone (bio page with cool magazine spread!). In addition to a lot more photos of waves and storms on Lake Superior, you can also find shots of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, events like the UP 200 Sled Dog Race, Northern Lights and an absolutely amazing number of pictures of towns, trails and all facets of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Go there, you won’t be disappointed!