Tonight, not a lot of northern lights, but it was fun to take pictures of the Milky Way and the northen lights...

Photo details: Canon EOS 30D, 10mm, 15sec., f3,5, ISO 1600

On Aug. 26th in northern Canada, the sky lit up with vivid green auroras. There was no particular reason. Photographer Sylvain Serre of Salluit, Quebec, lives under Earth's auroral oval where the slightest shift of solar wind can spark a midnight display like this. "After a quiet start, the northern lights were very bright and I didn't regret [being out and about] so late at night," says Serre

Photo details: Canon EOS 30D, 10mm, f3,5, ISO 800-1600, 8-15 sec.

Got another call from Spaceweather PHONE informing me of the possibility of Auroras in my area. Went to a dark site and snapped some awesome full sky images using my Canon 40D and Tokina fisheye lens, also got an Iridium Flare which was right on schedule, also captured a meteor, beautiful night.

We were surprised by the intense activity of the aurora this evening. Beautiful auroras can indeed be seen even during solar minimum.

On August 9, 2008 the skies came alive over Melfort Saskatchewan with pinks & greens from an outstanding display of Northern Lights. Seen nestled within the glow is the familiar Big Dipper star pattern.

On my regular flight from Los Angeles to London, I kept an eye for aurora. There was a very minor display, but I was very pleased to see noctilucent clouds--the first I have ever seen them. Here I was able to photograph both at the same time. The clouds were very luminous--remarkably bright and electric blue in color.

Photo details: Canon Rebel XSi, 24mm lens, f/1.4, 1.6s, ISO 1600.

Normally, the South Pole is snow white, but on August 4th, the landscape around 90^o S turned vivid green. What happened? A plasma bullet struck Earth's inner magnetic field, sparking bright Southern Lights. In the deep Antarctic night, everything turned the color of aurora australis.

"These auroras illuminated the ice surface enough to see the sastrugi I was tripping over while I took the pictures," reports J. Dana Hrubes, caretaker of the South Pole Telescope and science leader of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. "We are enjoying the last full month of aurora watching at the geographic south pole as the sun will be making its return after 6 months on September 21st. In at least one of the photos you can see the South Pole Telescope; it is blurry because it was scanning the sky during the exposure. The bright 'star' is Jupiter."

Photo details: Canon Rebel XTi, 15 to 30 second exposures, 800 and 1600 ISO, 10 mm Sigma lens, f4.0.