November 7, 2021
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November Aurora 001
Many people were posting about the coming CME (Coronal Mass Ejection). These are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona. It is what causes Northern Lights in the night sky. This one they called a Cannibal CME as it was coming in so fast that it overtook two smaller CME’s. The night sky was going to glow.
Karla and I woke up at 2:00 AM. Karla looked out the window first and said you have got to see this. Waves of color were shooting across the sky in three directions. The eastern, northern and western skies were all lit up. It was the best I have seen for some time. Since I had just returned from the hospital after heart surgery I couldn’t lift anything. Karla set up the tripod for me on the deck and for the next 40 minutes I felt that I was in heaven.
November Aurora 003
The waves of light started to slow down after 30 minutes and columns appeared. Sometimes people ask me whether what I am capturing on the digital camera is what I am seeing with the naked eye. In this case yes. This is what Karla and I were seeing. When the aurora is bright you usually see with your eye what the camera is capturing. When the aurora is faint a 30 second photo can capture more light than what you see with your eye.
What the camera can’t capture is the beautiful curtains of light pulsating across the sky. CME’s can travel over a million miles per hour so when these curtains of colored light travel from the horizon to over your head in less than a second it is breathtaking.
