I Saw the Northern Lights Last Night
The Chicagoland area was greeted by the Aurora Borealis last night on October 10th, 2024. I saw the Northern Lights for the first time and detailed my account below. Take a look!
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Thursday, October 10th, 2024 started as a relatively normal day. I woke up, went to work, came home, ate dinner, and watched some television with my partner. A couple of hours later, however, my partner informed me that the Northern Lights (more technically referred to as the Aurora Borealis) would be visiting the Chicagoland area that night.
The Aurora Borealis is an electromagnetic phenomenon that is noted for its wonderous display of pink, purple, and green lights filling the sky wherever it is observed. They are typically observed near the Earth’s magnetic poles, but during major geomagnetic storms, they can spread further outward, allowing those that live closer to the equator and at lower elevations to marvel at their beauty.
Geomagnetic storms can occur when the sun emits coronal mass ejections (CME’s), which often follow solar flare events, though not necessarily. It just so happened that Thursday saw the biggest solar flare since 2017, and Chicagoland’s viewing of the Aurora Borealis was directly a result of this.
So, when my partner told me about the potential sighting of the Northern Lights, I was thrilled! I had never seen them before, and I was excited to experience them for the first time after hearing about them through television, news, and other media.
Upon hearing they would be visible, we got in the car and went driving in the night around 8:00 PM. Unfortunately, the Northern Lights weren’t quite visible yet from our area, appearing closer to around 9:00 - 10:00 PM that night, so we were left worried and confused, hoping we hadn’t already missed out on our chance to see them.
Feeling a little defeated, we returned home and resumed business as usual. My partner was determined to keep checking throughout the night and looked outside again around 9:15 PM, but saw nothing but the empty, night sky.
I decided to try something I had heard about once while reading about the phenomenon, noting that the Aurora Borealis may not be entirely perceptible in the visible light spectrum via the naked eye; I pulled out my phone. Using my phone’s camera, I was able to more clearly see the Northern Lights, and I was astounded.
Just when I had begun to lose hope in ever seeing them sometime soon, I saw them.
The Northern Lights.
They were absolutely beautiful, and I was grateful that I was able to capture this moment using my phone’s camera so that I can continue to marvel in their natural beauty. I rushed inside to tell my partner about them, and she didn’t believe me at first, claiming to have been out there only 5 minutes prior. She hadn’t used her phone to try and see them, however, so we both went back outside for a while until we decided to go back home.
They were quite the sight, and I am definitely glad that I was able to see them. I hope you enjoyed my personal account of the night, and hope you got the chance to see them too!
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