During the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, the shooting stars were upstaged by an auroral burst. The author captured this image from Lake Hudson State Park in Clayton, Michigan. Credit: Adrian Bradley
This is my open letter to all aurora chasers.
After returning home from a successful trip to the 2024 Okie-Tex Star Party in early October, I received alerts from SpaceWeather.com indicating increased activity on the Sun. Predictions called for a severe geomagnetic storm, with a chance of auroral activity as far south as Alabama.
I silenced those alerts and went to bed.
Some of you may wonder why I didn’t immediately get excited, gas up the car, and bring my gear out to try and get some aurora pictures. Well, let me tell you my story.
The author sits lakeside near Lambton Shores, Ontario. He used a short exposure to capture the scene as it appeared to his eyes. Credit: Adrian Bradley
My history with aurorae
Before getting into photography, I had a chance to see an auroral outburst in 2003 in Wisconsin. It was during another active solar cycle. I wasn’t much into astronomy then, but I recognized it as an aurora, stopped the car I was driving, watched for a few minutes, and locked the unforgettable sight in my mind.
