Patricia Lane Evans walked out on her front steps Tuesday evening and held up her iPhone. And then she started snapping photos of the vibrant colors of the northern lights over her house in Seabrook.
It was, she said, “an impressive Veterans Day salute!”
Smartphone cameras can take surprisingly good photos of the aurora borealis, with night modes and adjusted exposure times, and they capture the dynamic red and green hues that the human eye cannot always see.
At least in New England.
“I always thought I would have to travel to Alaska or Iceland to see them, but I only had to go as far as the front yard,” Evans said. “Fortunately, I live on a small hill and have a good clear view of the sky.”
Many Granite Staters were fortunate to view the northern lights this week. Some of our neighbors captured the vibrant colors and shared their photos with NHPR.
The aurora borealis put on quite a light show overnight on Nov. 11 and Nov. 12. It was visible from the Northeast to the midwest and as far south as Florida.
The Space Weather Prediction Center at NOAA reports the best seasons for viewing the aurora borealis are around the spring and fall equinoxes. This is because of the way the solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetosphere, and “there is a tendency towards larger geomagnetic storms, and thus better auroras.”
