Aurora Borealis
On May 10, 2024 much of the world was treated to the sight of the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) in the late night sky, thanks to the largest geomagnetic storm since 2003. In the United States, the northern lights were visible as far south as the Florida Keys! Larry would have been all about this - outside with his camera and tripod, intensely tweaking the settings to capture amazing images. I would have been giggling, squeezing his arm, and squealing, "Can you believe this, Honey! We're seeing this in Spokane!"
I’ve always wanted to see the northern lights. With so many giant trees and city light around my house, I drove out to the Palouse to get a better view and it was SO worth it! The auroral corona (see how I sound all science-y there?) was actually visible with the naked eye - an incredible sight in every direction! It wasn’t super bright but, it turns out, cell phones capture much more light than our eyes can see (insert scientific factoids here) so the images captured through the lens of my (and everyone else’s) Samsung Galaxy S23 camera are pretty spectacular. I was like a person seeing my first giraffe and losing my shit! Standing in the dirt outside of my car in my sweatshirt, sweatpants, and crocs just shooting frantically, photo after photo after photo in every direction in the sky, giving zero thought to cmposition or foreground. It was pretty epic.
(Click on photos for more detail.)
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