It seems that every time there’s supposed to be some sort of rare celestial phenomenon our skies are filled with thick clouds, but last week we were lucky. The sky was clear following the solar storms and we were actually able to see some northern lights from our New Jersey backyard, which is pretty incredible.

So even though it was a little bit chilly outside, we braved the cold to stand out on the deck and watch the light show. The colors and lights did change as we stood there watching the performance. Above is one of the first pictures I snapped, and below is one of the last ones I took.

Generally when I see some cool natural phenomenon or awesome view I try to capture it with a camera (I almost said “on film” but the truth is it’s been a long time since I’ve tried to capture anything on film.) The pictures usually come out far less impressive than what I see before me, but the opposite thing happened when snapping photos of the northern lights.

No Photoshop or fancy editing techniques were used to produce the pictures above, but at the same time what I actually saw with my naked eye was far less impressive than those photos. When Ron called me to come outside and look at the sky, neither of us were sure if what we were seeing was the northern lights. The dark night sky just looked like it had a slightly reddish hue. It was barely even noticeable. I had my iPhone in my hand, though, and I opened up the camera and after turning off the flash I ended up taking the first photo you see above. So, this was definitely a case where the camera was able to take photos that were way more spectacular than what we could actually see in person.

Because of the low light conditions, the phone camera needed three seconds to capture each image. I did my best to hold the phone as still as possible, but I’m sure if I was using a tripod, the pictures would have been very crisp and clear. Still it was a very impressive show, especially when we were viewing it through our phones’ cameras.

Ron (who is much more of a night owl than I am) is always out walking around on the deck at night and reports to me all the shooting stars he has seen and his glimpses of the International Space Station. So, it was an extra special treat to me when we were out there looking at the northern lights that I caught a glimpse of a shooting star too. That may be the only time I’ll ever see a shooting star that Ron misses. He was turned around talking to me at the time I saw it streak across the sky. Alas, I wasn’t in the middle of snapping one of my northern lights photos at the time.

As for the comet that’s currently out there, we haven’t seen that, but perhaps if the sky cooperates we’ll catch a glimpse of that too.

Finally, a huge thanks to everyone who entered my Halloween mug giveaway. I loved reading about what everyone would sip from their mug. It definitely made me thirsty! If I could send each and every one of you a mug I would. Alas, I was only able to pick one winner for this giveway, and it was Tiffany M. who is looking forward to sipping some Sweet Harvest Pumpkin and Caramel Apple Dream Celestial Seasonings tea from her mug. Yum!

Thanks as always for reading!

— Alissa

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Weekly Inspiration

What I’m Reading: Wired (Nov/Dec 2024)

What I’m Watching: The Grand Tour: One For the Road

What I’m Listening to: “Supernova” by Liz Phair

Find out more about my books at alissagrosso.com

Find out more about my digital art at alissacarin.com

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My apologies for the typos and such this post is almost certainly riddled with.