Aurora "Watch" May 10-11, 2024

[Ryan Schwartz]

Pretty incredible sight!

 

[James K]

I ofcourse hoped to see something but ofcourse was very doubtful since never do here, and ontop of that it was cloudy...
The clouds as forecast mostly cleared out after dark, I went out on the deck multiple times & looked north into the dull blue-gray star-less sky ("dark" is a relative term here, especially looking north or east), even had a look from the roof so trees were no longer in the way. Saw nothing each time (dissappointing but not unexpected).

Before going to bed I made a final look out the window... I thought I could see a faint beam? pillar? of white-ish light (deff wasn't a searchlight it wasn't moving, don't know what it was), so then made one final trip out to the roof for a better look. No beam/pillar of light, and no 'colors' looking north, just the normal dull star-less sky... but then looking northwest and up a fair bit from the horizon I thought I could see a magenta/pink glow... and looking more, yeah it was there, very faint but deff there. It kinda faded in & out for a bit, then eventually disappeared. Sadly too faint to pickup anything on camera.

not sure, maybe that final late-night look out & sitting in the cold was worth it since I've *never* seen northern lights colors

I've seen lots of absolutely beautiful photos, even some from places way farther south than me. Doubt I'll ever get that from home.

 

[Levi Mol]

Photos from 5/10/2024 in Hudsonville, Michigan

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

From west of Wichita. Pinks from before midnight. Blues around 3am.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Shot from just off I-76 northeast of Denver. It was like a regular storm chase, as three exits in a row were literally packed full of people who had left the metro area to view. We had to keep going further out to get away from the crowd.



What I found really neat, at 40.2 deg. N lat., was turning around and getting pink hues when shooting Scorpio, along the southern horizon!

 

[Mark Egan]

This was my 6th time seeing aurora from Texas and it was definitely the most interesting.

I first noticed the aurora as a diffuse red glow through my windshield. I was in an area with lots of trees at that moment, so I could not stop. When I did about 10 minutes later, I stepped out the car, and my eyes adapted to the dark while I set up my camera equipment.

I could see a mostly colorless diffuse glow to the north, reaching up to about 35°. (faint hints of red and green would show up occasionally in this area.)

To the east, south and west I could see the brighter streaks of red that are shown in some of the pictures.

I could see the auroral rays (the lines in the picture that has only stars (no ground objects)- they were moving slowly east to west across the Big Dipper

A few times I could see small sections of the aurora rapidly pulsating high overhead.

An amazing display.

Location: about 20 miles NE of Bonham, Tx

 

[John Farley]

From Pagosa Springs, CO, through an opening in the clouds, around 9:15 last night. First time I have seen them from here, though I saw them many times growing up in Iowa and occasionally when I lived in the St. Louis area. Camera picked up a lot more color than was visible with the naked eye, but with the naked eye it was evident that, where there were gaps in the clouds, it was brighter looking north than any other direction. Exposure info: F/5.6, ISO 6400, 10 seconds.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Visible again in St. Louis around 11:30pm for about 10 minutes. Visible-to-the-eyes green arc with red pillars showing on camera. I've seen some talk of another KP-9 burst possible before daybreak, so it's probably a good night to stay out if you missed yesterday!

 

[Taylor French]

I was at home in Plainfield, IL Friday night when the show revealed itself. It was quite remarkable what we could see given the suburban environment and light pollution. It was my fiance's first time seeing them so that was special too.

Yesterday evening, I decided to drive north to Oxford, WI where I would be north of the Madison and Milwaukee metro areas. The show came through around 11:30 PM, these are a few of the shots that I got:

It started as an arc low across the sky and then gradually 'approached'. It was reminiscent of a shelf cloud rolling in.

 

[Jeff House]

Kentucky and Tennessee worked! Punted Illinois when I dug deeper into that little clipper system. Storm chase partner was busy, but I was able to cajole the family. So, we started up I-75 on a prayer for Kentucky. Managing expectations, I promised some DSLR horizon fun since the wife and kid are getting into photography.

Stopped for gas in Williamsburg, KY and I saw social media blowing up about Aurora down to the Gulf Coast. Hmmm. Filled up, and even from under the bright gas stations lights, green glow was obvious to my northeast. We rushed to a semi-darker place, to see reds all quads including South and green horizon north!

Decision point. Find a darker view in an unfamiliar place, and risk missing some show; or, sit there and just let the camera pull out the details through city lights. Well, it's a small town, but not the darkness for which I was looking. We stayed when the building owner invited us to do so. Friendly Rural South!

Pictures are a mix of Kentucky 10:15 pm Eastern, Tennessee 3:00 am Eastern, and looking south from my neighborhood. Yeah it hit my house, lol. Neighbors could not see detail naked eye, but their phones worked well. I'm not sure why the last photo won't rotate, but captures some greens.

Going with family was really meaningful. With the total solar eclipse and now this, 2024 has been a blessing in the Sky.

 

[Robert Reynolds]

I missed out on the best part of the big show Friday night (at work in suburban Kansas City and there was just too much light pollution where I was to really be able to enjoy it).

When there were indications that Saturday night (May 11th) might have a showing as well, I started scoping out locations away for the urban light pollution that also would provide good composition. I found this little Bortle 3 treasure in Brown County, Kansas just east of Hiawatha in the northeast part of the state - about a 1.5 hour drive from my house.

The aurora that night was intense - vivid and bright enough to illuminate the surrounding areas to the point I could read the buttons on the back of my camera. But it was short lived - lasting about 15-20 minutes before fading back into the darkness. I waited around until 3:00 am so I could get a decent Milky Way shot framed in the southern sky and then headed back to KC.

 

[James K]

having seen some pretty cool photos from places even far south as TX and FL in the days after the event is pretty shocking, especially when compared to just how little I saw.

Overall, while not expecting much, I was kinda disappointed (particularly after all the photos I saw).. but glad I atleast saw *something* even if it was faint.
I'm guessing its a combination of things...the fact looking north is a not-so-dark starless sky here(yes there really are no stars when looking north). and maybe the auroras just weren't as much here? Also guessing allot of photos are taken with fancy expensive cameras that do stuff like long exposures and/or really bring out the brightness way more than it truly is??

I will admit that I didn't just sit outside for hours (that woulda been boring, not to mention too cold especially as it got later in the night) but rather I just kept going out & checking every so often (.lol. who knows how many times I went out to the deck that night)
Friday was the only chance here, as saturday night it was cloudy with rain on & off, but atleast I was treated to a little light-show of a different type - a thundershower at 3:30am(that one got videoed(no idea if said vid turned out since I haven't gone through it)) .. would not normally be awake at such crazy times, but something woke me...probably the quiet thunder in the distance.

 

[Dan Robinson]

In St. Louis, the brightest burst of vivid pillars extending past the zenith was just after sunset at 9:00pm CDT Friday. They were luminous enough to get good exposures even with city lights. In my photos from that time, the blue color in the sky is from twilight that was still present. That burst faded pretty quickly after a few minutes into a still-visible-to-the-eyes softer glow that lasted until around 9:30pm. Those also were bright enough to show up with city lights. After that, there was a pretty long lull with intermittent fainter pillars (more typical for most auroras at these latitudes). I stayed shooting at the Arch grounds until 10:45pm and didn't capture any further activity that was visible with the city lights.

The next big burst happened at 2:30am CDT and lasted until morning twilight. That one had naked-eye pillars visible to near zenith a few times, but wasn't nearly as bright as the 9pm one. I was out in the country for the second burst and don't know if those would have shown in the city lights, I'm guessing they wouldn't have very well.

The following night, there was another burst at 11:20-11:30pm CDT (Saturday) that I shot over the city. I saw some pretty vivid-looking exposures of those that others shot from rural locations, but in my case they were very dim in my exposures with the city lights.

I think the 9pm Friday burst was the only one that was capable of being photographed with a lot of light pollution. After that, it was more of the typical ones that were vivid to the eyes and cameras both only if you were out in a darker location.

 

[Matt Hunt]

Friday was REALLY amazing here in Idaho, but I did not have an interesting foreground. Saturday I went up into the mountains, as I knew the perfect spot looking north. It was intense for about 15 minutes, and then it was gone. Shot on a Sony a7IV with 20mm f/1.8.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Went up to Nebraska /South Dakota Friday and out to the Badlands for Saturday. Both were incredibly productive for photos. There was a lull in the activity Saturday night, but I stayed up all night and was rewarded with some extra auroras just before sunrise.


Friday Night in Nebraska/SD
Saturday night in Badlands