Aurora "Watch" May 10-11, 2024

[Robert Reynolds]

I missed out on the best part of the big show Friday night (at work in suburban Kansas City and there was just too much light pollution where I was to really be able to enjoy it).

When there were indications that Saturday night (May 11th) might have a showing as well, I started scoping out locations away for the urban light pollution that also would provide good composition. I found this little Bortle 3 treasure in Brown County, Kansas just east of Hiawatha in the northeast part of the state - about a 1.5 hour drive from my house.

The aurora that night was intense - vivid and bright enough to illuminate the surrounding areas to the point I could read the buttons on the back of my camera. But it was short lived - lasting about 15-20 minutes before fading back into the darkness. I waited around until 3:00 am so I could get a decent Milky Way shot framed in the southern sky and then headed back to KC.

 

[James K]

having seen some pretty cool photos from places even far south as TX and FL in the days after the event is pretty shocking, especially when compared to just how little I saw.

Overall, while not expecting much, I was kinda disappointed (particularly after all the photos I saw).. but glad I atleast saw *something* even if it was faint.
I'm guessing its a combination of things...the fact looking north is a not-so-dark starless sky here(yes there really are no stars when looking north). and maybe the auroras just weren't as much here? Also guessing allot of photos are taken with fancy expensive cameras that do stuff like long exposures and/or really bring out the brightness way more than it truly is??

I will admit that I didn't just sit outside for hours (that woulda been boring, not to mention too cold especially as it got later in the night) but rather I just kept going out & checking every so often (.lol. who knows how many times I went out to the deck that night)
Friday was the only chance here, as saturday night it was cloudy with rain on & off, but atleast I was treated to a little light-show of a different type - a thundershower at 3:30am(that one got videoed(no idea if said vid turned out since I haven't gone through it)) .. would not normally be awake at such crazy times, but something woke me...probably the quiet thunder in the distance.

 

[Dan Robinson]

In St. Louis, the brightest burst of vivid pillars extending past the zenith was just after sunset at 9:00pm CDT Friday. They were luminous enough to get good exposures even with city lights. In my photos from that time, the blue color in the sky is from twilight that was still present. That burst faded pretty quickly after a few minutes into a still-visible-to-the-eyes softer glow that lasted until around 9:30pm. Those also were bright enough to show up with city lights. After that, there was a pretty long lull with intermittent fainter pillars (more typical for most auroras at these latitudes). I stayed shooting at the Arch grounds until 10:45pm and didn't capture any further activity that was visible with the city lights.

The next big burst happened at 2:30am CDT and lasted until morning twilight. That one had naked-eye pillars visible to near zenith a few times, but wasn't nearly as bright as the 9pm one. I was out in the country for the second burst and don't know if those would have shown in the city lights, I'm guessing they wouldn't have very well.

The following night, there was another burst at 11:20-11:30pm CDT (Saturday) that I shot over the city. I saw some pretty vivid-looking exposures of those that others shot from rural locations, but in my case they were very dim in my exposures with the city lights.

I think the 9pm Friday burst was the only one that was capable of being photographed with a lot of light pollution. After that, it was more of the typical ones that were vivid to the eyes and cameras both only if you were out in a darker location.

 

[Matt Hunt]

Friday was REALLY amazing here in Idaho, but I did not have an interesting foreground. Saturday I went up into the mountains, as I knew the perfect spot looking north. It was intense for about 15 minutes, and then it was gone. Shot on a Sony a7IV with 20mm f/1.8.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Went up to Nebraska /South Dakota Friday and out to the Badlands for Saturday. Both were incredibly productive for photos. There was a lull in the activity Saturday night, but I stayed up all night and was rewarded with some extra auroras just before sunrise.


Friday Night in Nebraska/SD
Saturday night in Badlands

 

[Dave C]

I monitor space weather sites frequently in winter months in case there is a chance for a trip up north, but that usually stops by May since it is light until midnight or after in most typical viewing locations up north at that time of year. So, it was just a fluke I heard about an increase in solar CME activity and started monitoring NOAA space weather products by 5/9. After 5 or more flares were known to have ejected toward earth, I started to believe the hype that this could be a rare G5 event. Friday morning I left CO for northern Wyoming to avoid clouds and get past any sources of light pollution (cities, oil and gas production) that would be north of me. I ended up north east of Gilette, and had a great view.

At blue hour I could already see purpling from reds and knew this would be quite something for the lower latitudes. I was very fortunate to find good calm water for some reflections. I took 9000 images of timelapse on 3 mirrorless cameras as well as some video of the event, resulting in 500GB of data to deal with! While not quite as spectacular as seeing a strong storm in Alaska, Iceland, etc. this was truly special, and a much more cost effective and simpler night to achieve. Plus, I had a great time camping by the lake the night and next day!

 

[Evan B]

No spectacular photos but I'm glad I was able to get out there and see the aurora for my first time. I had tried to get some aurora photos before but the cloud cover had never cooperated. For this event, I had been paying attention to the possibility of G4+ activity for a little while, and figured I'd drive east a ways to get away from the majority of the light pollution. Skies were clear and forecast to remain that way through the night. Got to an initial spot just after dark and was able to spend a couple hours there watching (and figuring out camera settings for shooting) the aurora. Colors were somewhat muted to the unaided eye, but there was certainly faint hues of green and red, especially with some of the pillars.

 

[Levi Mol]

I monitor space weather sites frequently in winter months in case there is a chance for a trip up north, but that usually stops by May since it is light until midnight or after in most typical viewing locations up north at that time of year. So, it was just a fluke I heard about an increase in solar CME activity and started monitoring NOAA space weather products by 5/9. After 5 or more flares were known to have ejected toward earth, I started to believe the hype that this could be a rare G5 event. Friday morning I left CO for northern Wyoming to avoid clouds and get past any sources of light pollution (cities, oil and gas production) that would be north of me. I ended up north east of Gilette, and had a great view.

At blue hour I could already see purpling from reds and knew this would be quite something for the lower latitudes. I was very fortunate to find good calm water for some reflections. I took 9000 images of timelapse on 3 mirrorless cameras as well as some video of the event, resulting in 500GB of data to deal with! While not quite as spectacular as seeing a strong storm in Alaska, Iceland, etc. this was truly special, and a much more cost effective and simpler night to achieve. Plus, I had a great time camping by the lake the night and next day!

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WOW!!!!! Now those are cool

 

[James K]

The following night, there was another burst at 11:20-11:30pm CDT (Saturday) that I shot over the city. I saw some pretty vivid-looking exposures of those that others shot from rural locations, but in my case they were very dim in my exposures with the city lights.

This is similar to what my night view would be ... but looks like light pollution is even worse here. (for example those stars in the lower portions of the image arent there, & the sky is a bit lighter color)
There was one point at which I thought all that light north of me had a slight green tint, but it wasn't even fully dark yet, so I figured it was a simple trick of the mind & the city-light combined with last bits of daylight.
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@Ben Holcomb ..and.. @Dave C
Wow in both cases those are absolutely amazing & beautiful.
(& I really love the looking straight up views)