#2896 there was SOMETHING going on

On Friday night I was mindlessly scrolling through Facebook after I watched a movie. I saw a post from a local group I am in that posed the question about where a person could see the Northern Lights that night. I thought it was a joke, and I went to bed around midnight without giving it another thought.

On Saturday morning, I was mindlessly scrolling through Facebook and saw lots of pics from local people who had seen the northern lights out by the Great Salt Lake, not ten minutes from my house! I was annoyed with myself for not making an effort to find out if the phenomenon was really happening in my own night sky. After a little research, I learned that there was a chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis on Saturday night, so MT and I agreed to head out to the west desert to check it out.

The problematic part was that the northern lights were not visible to the naked eye. You could only see them through the night mode and long exposure through the camera. Okay, I can do that. The other problem was that there were cloudy skies to the north. You can tell there is something going on, but you might not guess it was a geomagnetic storm.

You can click on the photos to enlarge, if you like. Normal photo (night mode, regular exposure)

Night mode, long exposure:

This was the first time I've ever had really clear shots of stars:

Overall, it was kind of a bust. It was cool, but not what I thought I'd see. We ended up getting home just after 2am, and I didn't get to sleep until nearly 3. I'm pretty tuckered out today.