{"id":1194,"date":"2020-08-12T20:29:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T20:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurorasaurudev.wpengine.com\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2023-12-26T21:48:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T21:48:11","slug":"a-frenzy-of-sky-phenomena-reflections-on-a-once-in-a-lifetime-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/?p=1194","title":{"rendered":"A Frenzy of Sky Phenomena: Reflections on a Once-in-a-Lifetime Chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early morning hours of July 13, a slow-moving coronal mass ejection from the Sun arrived early on its journey to Earth.\u00a0That afternoon, word spread across social media in Europe, Canada, and the US: <\/span>there might be aurora tonight.<\/span><\/i> No one knew, however, whether it would last long enough for this part of Earth to turn away from the Sun, toward dark skies and the part of the magnetosphere that triggers nighttime aurora. Anticipation mixed with anxiety into the evening as aurora chasers dreamed of seeing the Northern Lights alongside <\/span>Comet NEOWISE<\/span><\/a>. Then, just as the phenomena grew more likely, clouds obscured much of the sky, blocking northern views. Some dedicated aurora hunters, like Notanee Bourassa, drove great distances to escape the cloud cover and find clear skies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As skywatchers pointed binoculars, telescopes, and cameras upward to catch a glimpse of NEOWISE, the sky blossomed with noctilucent clouds, aurora, possible dune aurora, and STEVE. Watchers described their amazement as one thing, then another, then yet another came out. The result was an unforgettable (and beautifully-photographed) event. Our Twitter feed filled with wonder, and we wanted to capture and share the excitement\u2014an expression of the joy of chasing wonders in the sky.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The following are impressions from Aurorasaurus Ambassadors who were out that night. One, Donna Lach, even had a photo <\/span>featured<\/span><\/a> by NASA!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Photo of NEOWISE, the ISS, aurora, and STEVE by Donna Lach, taken on July 14 at 1:06 am local time in Southwest Manitoba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was just so nice to see it after a dry spell for so long\u2014it was a thrill! It was an epic night; you don\u2019t see aurora like that very often, with all the features and structures that were involved. I was constantly saying \u201cWow!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Donna Lach, Plumas, Manitoba, Canada<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\"Comet<\/a>
Photo by Dr. Joe Shaw, looking over the Bridger Mountains just east of Bozeman, Montana, USA at 2:50 am MDT (0950 UTC) on Sunday, July 12, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I had gone out to photograph Comet NEOWISE without really expecting the extra treat of seeing noctilucent clouds at this latitude. Especially when treats like this occur, I look down the hill to the houses where all the people are asleep and I feel sorry they’re missing this, but also grateful because I enjoy the solitude.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Dr. Joseph Shaw, Bozeman, Montana, USA<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\"Aurora<\/a>
Photo of NEOWISE with aurora by Notanee Bourassa. He drove from Regina to Kisbey, Saskatchewan, and then drove north 10km. He started shooting at 10:51pm CST on July 13 and stopped at 1:09am July 14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“That night was super exciting! I could see a faint band of the Northern Lights even during twilight. I\u2019d been praying all day that the hemispheric power would hold and the IMF and Bz would behave. I started to see activity from the north wind their way down in a diffuse band in front of me. The main band grew brighter and advanced southward, then the excitement started from the East, and began rippling over. I thought: it\u2019s going to happen! I had to reset my cameras to take more frequent intervals because the aurora was getting exciting. When there was action, it was so awesome. As I said on Twitter, I feel like aurora is the visual representation of cosmic music being played on electromagnetic field lines. Last night was epic, in its most sincere meaning. We had STEVE, we had dunes, we had noctilucent clouds, we had a comet! I\u2019ve had one hour of sleep and I\u2019m still buzzing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I can sleep tonight!”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Notanee Bourassa, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Comet<\/a>
Photo of Comet NEOWISE by Vincent Ledvina, as seen outside New York City on July 25, 2020 at 11 pm EDT. Cloud cover prevented Ledvina from photographing NEOWISE with the aurora on July 14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEveryone says, \u2018but you’ve seen the aurora already, why do you want to see it again?\u2019\u00a0 And my response is, no two displays are the same\u2014you discover something different each time.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Vincent Ledvina, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Behind<\/a>
Photo by Chris Ratzlaff of NEOWISE, aurora, and noctilucent clouds at the Okotoks Erratic \u201cBig Rock,\u201d Alberta, Canada, just after midnight on July 14.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“<\/span>That night was a frenzy of sky phenomena! There were so many things to look at, you almost had to pick and choose what to photograph at the same time. There was almost too much: the aurora, the dunes, STEVE, the Milky Way, and a once in a lifetime comet! There had been such a dry spell, it almost felt like they all came out of lockdown together. It was amazing. Where I was, people were spread out with their cameras and telescopes to catch the comet. As the aurora came out, a cheer went up across the park. It was a pretty awesome night.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Chris Ratzlaff, Calgary, Alberta, Canada<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did you catch NEOWISE or the aurora? Let us know in the comments\u2014or better yet, please make a backdated report on Aurorasaurus.org! Helping piece together a timeline of the STEVE and aurora\u2014as well as other events\u2014is scientifically inspiring, as well as the amazing feeling of special unexpected conjunctions. See you in about 6,800 years, hopefully, NEOWISE!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the early morning hours of July 13, a slow-moving coronal mass ejection from the Sun arrived early on its journey to Earth.\u00a0That afternoon, word spread across social media in Europe, Canada, and the US: there might be aurora tonight. No one knew, however, whether it would last long enough for this part of Earth… Read More »A Frenzy of Sky Phenomena: Reflections on a Once-in-a-Lifetime Chase<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,6,4,16],"tags":[20,21,23,19],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aurora-testimonials","category-citizen-science","category-large-aurora-events","category-solar-events","category-steve","tag-auroras","tag-citizen-science","tag-northern-lights","tag-steve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}