July 2004
Aurora Gallery
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Summary: A coronal mass ejection hurled into space by sunspot 652 (movie) hit Earth's magnetic field on July 26th at approximately 2300 UT. The impact triggered a severe geomagnetic storm that lasted for 12+ hours, sparking auroras as far south as California in the United States. See also the May-June 2004 aurora gallery.

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Unless otherwise stated, all images are copyrighted by the photographers.


  Photographer, Location Images Comments

Duane Clausen,
Marquette, Michigan
Jul. 25
#1, more

This image of the historic Marquette Lighthouse was taken in the predawn hours of Sunday July 25th in Marquette Michigan.

Dirk Obudzinski,
Lake Berryessa, California, USA
Jul. 27
#1, #2, #3, #4, more

Images #3 and #4 showing the 'brightest' moments near 4 AM (11:00 UTC) on July 27, as auroral activity intensified somewhat. At that time I noticed a few very faint, but tall rays in the East(!) nearby the rising Venus, as seen in image #1. The Pleiades and the constellation Taurus can also be seen in that picture. Image #2 was captured at 1:48 AM displaying a small meteor next to the aurora.

Stan Richard,
Saylorville Lake north of Des Moines, Iowa
Jul. 26
#1, #2, #3, #4, more

Hare are a few shots of a substorm I witnessed Monday evening just after dusk. For a brief period there were 2 green arcs, one directly overhead with beams extending from the lower arc almost to zenith, quite beautiful. It faded out quickly. I used a Canon Digital Rebel for these.


David Johnston,
Duvall, Washington, USA
Jul. 27
#1, #2, #3, #4, more

What a colorful evening! Photo #3 is a panorama of six photos (6-sec each) to capture the entire East/North/West view (the orange is from city sodium vapor lights). Photo #2 is of the same 'tister' phenomenon seen by Tom Gwilym (gallery page 6) from Renton. The streak he saw to the 'North' was directly over my house. I used a Nikon D1X, ISO 800.

Mark A. Brown,
St. Jacob, Illinois
Jul. 26
#1, #2

The auroral show at our latitude was very subtle and short lived, but still worth losing some sleep to wait and watch for. Photographed with a Minolta SRT 202 and Fuji 800 film. 20 second exposures at f/3.5

Shevill Mathers,
Cambridge, Tasmania, Australia
Jul. 27
#1, #2, #3, more

These images were taken when there was little visible activity and the camera was much more sensitive. StellaCam EX Video camera showed high speed vertical pulses over a long period, invisible to the naked eye.

Liem Bahneman,
Taken from near Arlington, Washington.
Jul. 26
#1, #2, more

Yet another Canon Digital Rebel, kit lens. ISO400, f/8 manual timing. Prominent hydrogen arc, with active rays, curtains. Faded into the north, but a bright arc appeared overhead near midnight, with a neat braided illusion.

Ray Gilmore,
Gig Harbor, Washington
Jul. 27
#1, #2, #3, #4

One of the most interesting aurora displays we have seen. Shapes, colors and dimensions changed considerably over a two hour period from 11:30pm PDT. Camera: Canon FTb, ASA 800, 28mm lens at F4, 20 - 30 second exposure.

Steven J. Denfeld,
Bend, Oregon, USA
Jul. 27
#1, #2

This display in the High Desert of Central Oregon peaked sharply just after 1:30 a.m. I observed horizontal sheets of light streaking towards me in very rapid succession - often with less than a second between pulses - which caused the rays to greatly intensify. This was a phenomenon I have never seen before. There was not much color visible except for a slight pink towards the NW. To top off this fine show, there were quite a few meteors streaking through the sky. Images made with a Canon PowerShot S45, 15 sec exposures at ISO 400.

Bart Firth,
Dawsonville, northern New Brunswick, Canada
Jul. 26
#1, #2, #3

Kodak camera, 400asa, 16 second exposure. One of the best displays of auroras I have seen in years.

John Ridley,
Eagle Harbor, Michigan, USA
Jul. 24
#1, more

Canon digital rebel, ISO3200, check embedded EXIF info for precise exposure data. No photo can do justice to this aurora; it was incredibly active; I pushed to 3200 to reduce exposure time to 4 seconds, but even so the aurora was moving too fast to really catch the detail that was visible to the eye. Streamers were moving and fading in just a second or two, plus there were fainter background waves that moved completely across the sky in just a few seconds. This site has absolutely NO light pollution; it's on the shore of lake superior in Michigan's upper peninsula, wide-field photos of the sky show NO light domes anywhere, so everything you see here is aurora!

more images: from Art Kunz near Carbondale, Illinois

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