Yesterday was an unusual day. I was outside refilling bird feeders when my wife mentioned that we might be able to see sunspots. While I hadn’t heard the news about that, it made sense with an earlier alert from the Space Weather Prediction Center for high geomagnetic activity.
My wife then realized we still had our eclipse glasses and wanted to see. The glasses allowed us to see the sunspot. Though, it was hard to focus. Our eyes would have adjusted better if we had been outside longer in the sun. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get a picture of it.
In the evening, we were enjoying our dinner when we heard several sirens. Hearing the occasional siren isn’t unusual when living near a few major streets. What was remarkable was when they stopped abruptly. We investigated and saw 7-9 police cars and ambulances. They had the rest of the street blocked off. We’re still unsure what happened, but I hope everyone is okay.
At night, we went out in search of the aurora. Fortunately, the weather was mostly clear; it was difficult to determine whether we saw clouds or the Milky Way. We drove to a nearby pier, away from the lights, to see if that would help.
Apparently, several residents had the same idea. We eventually found a parking spot and hopped out to see what we could see. With the naked eye, it still looked like streaks of clouds. But the view through the phone was another story.
It was nearly impossible to get pictures without car headlights illuminating the field. But, it had an interesting effect. Sufficiently awed and chilled, we headed back home.
Several hours later, we ventured out. Wanting to avoid the crowds, we went to a church whose parking lot backs up against Lake Erie. We thought we would be alone when we rounded the corner and saw a cop car. I was formulating an acceptable reason for effectively trespassing on private property past midnight when I saw the officer taking pictures of the aurora. After our apprehensions were appropriately quelled, we exited the car to take photos.
There was a definite shift in the color spectrum. Also, there appeared to be different lights near the horizon. They may have been from the grow lights of an alleged marijuana farm in Canada. Regardless of the source, it added to the effect. I was also able to faintly capture the Big and Little Dipper constellations.