Where were the Lights?

The moon was the only show Saturday night. 5/11/24 dwm

 I missed the news reports of the large solar flare that was expected to set off a spectacular show of the Northern Lights Friday night.

 

 I missed seeing them for only the second time in my life.

 

 Reading about the event Saturday, it mentioned more displays were expected Saturday and Sunday night.  I decided if it was clear, I'd go look.

 Just before 10, I drove away from the city, looking for a hilltop with a good view of the northern sky. I found several cars already parked and waiting for the show.

After parking on the side of the road, I got my tripod ready, placing it in front of the car. Since I don't do much nighttime photography, it made sense to take some shots.

While 10 was given as the earliest the Northern Lights would be visible, I wasn't sure how precise calculations like that are, so I decided to hang in for at least an hour to hopefully see a colorful show.

An hour later, all I had was four far-away pictures of the moon, and fewer cars around me. I pulled out my phone and found a news report showing the area where the lights could be seen. It turned out the nearest area was on the shores of Lake Superior, no wonder we weren't seeing them.

 

Sunday I read online that some people in south Wisconsin were successful taking pictures of the aurora borealis, That may have been the case but I didn't see anything - maybe they showed up closer to midnight. 

I did enjoy personal star-gazing, identifying the Big Dipper and seeing a satellite moving across the sky in addition to a number of jets in the air. I'll wait for another shot at the Northern Lights; later this year we're going to be up north for about a week, so I'm hoping we'll get lucky then.