We had the most wonderful experience last night! We were treated to the largest display of the Aurora Borealis that I have ever seen! (Not that I have seen all that many, northern lights being in generally short supply in definitely non-arctic northern Illinois). It was truly fantastic!
As I stepped out on our deck to let Otis the Wonderdog have his way with the neighbors yard, (It’s ok…the house is empty an I go on poop patrol when my conscience flares up)I noticed that the sky to the north of the house was glowing bright red. At first I thought that it was just the glow of the lights in Galena (the nearest town) on some low cloud, but the glow didn’t extend all the way to the horizon (not to mention that Galena isn’t north of our house…duh!.)
Of course, I immediately dragged Mrs. Verona out of the nice warm house and out into the cold. As we looked, the whole red sky turned a pale greenish white, then slowly faded back to red. It then appeared to have vertical dark stripes as if it were a red velvet drape hanging over the house. The stripes would fade and reapear at slow intervals and we began to wonder if our eyes were just playing tricks on us.
My wife went back into the house (I think losing patience with my lunatic staring into the night sky, and being overcome by the chilly night air) and just after that, bright greenish-white streaks began to rapidy appear and disappear in the sky right overhead. Of course I had to run in and get my wife to come back out to see this new variation on the display!
At times there would be whole networks of the streaks in the sky all at the same time, and then they would all just vanish, and then reappear one by one. The red sky north of the house slowly turned green again then took on an almost homogenous white glow. Mrs. Verona, having far more sense than I, brought me a jacket, joined me for a few more quick ooohs! and ahhhs! and then sensibly went back in the nice warm house. I stood and watched the streaks come and go for the better part of an hour, until my neck was so sore I couldn’t bear to look up anymore.
At some point during the display, my long-suffering wife had asked what caused the lights, and I of course gave her the dry but somtimes impressive sounding, ‘I’ve read about this in science books’, charged particles from the sun and magnetic field explanation, but I was struck by how inadequate the explanation seemed for the absolute wonder that we were witnessing. (Maybe that’s why she didn’t stick around.)
I guess the coolest things don’t really need to be explained…just appreciated.
Maybe not the absolute coolest thing I’ve ever seen, but definitely in the top 10…here’s hoping for a repeat performance tonight. Anyone for a ‘let’s stare up at the sky like imbeciles party’?