Another brilliant night

 ...it was much dimmer and shorter lasting than the previous night.

However.
I felt it was 
my duty
to get out
and see what 
I could again.

I did make a huge mistake though.

I made some half decafe/half regular coffee. I thought it would be nice to have a thermos of warm coffee while standing in the cold...

Duh...duh...doh.

So pardon me if I am not focused.

Very little sleep because I was thinking about everything else while trying to sleep! 

Note to self don't try that again! Give away the coffee hubby used to drink or dump it!

The sky was very very faint from 6:30 to 8:00. The Aurora could only be seen with a camera. However, there were some neat pillars! 

I thought since it was not so brilliant, I'd try another Star Trail shot. So I set things up and let the camera do its thing while I sat next to the car and watched the sky. I listened to coyotes hunting and calling. I listened to owls talking in the distance.

The cattle gate that I was sitting next to creaked on its hinges sounding like an elderly person dragging a walker across linoleum. I sipped coffee and decided that I really did love the night sky.
Then there were flashes of light.

I was not hallucinating. An old beat up pick up was coming across the ridge with a spot light. They were shining for deer. I haven't seen that in ages. The truck cluttered and clattered towards where I sat next to my 'Ru. I had to stop the camera or the shot would have recorded the bright light when they shined me.

It is legal to shine for deer but not after 10PM and not if you have a weapon in the car. I never thought that shining was anything but a waste of time since most places you shine are not your property. They were legal, it was only 7:30.

I did get this though!

The truck passed, clackety clack and the smell of burnt oil. I watched them from my high vantage point circle the ridge roads of our Township.

I went home. Charlie was rather pleased. Then I decided to take a look with my cellphone to see if it was all done. I've seen some incredible shots done with iPhones! I don't have one, but the colors were there!

I set the camera up on a tripod in the yard and got it doing its thing. I cursed the airplanes but they use the airspace also.

The red light in the windows are from when I went inside to get a drink of water. I thought I was being smart and used the red mode on my headlamp.

I was surprised at how sensitive cameras can be. The house looked pretty spooky.

I took one more try from the back door looking up into the hill behind our house. I am still working on how to perfect star trails, but I am getting there. 👇👀

IF there is another chance tonight, I'll try.
I saw a Flickr friend use his cell phone 
to do a Time Lapse! 
That would be cool!

The new moon is November 19th. I'm thinking of trying to do just one more try at star trails and get a complete circle around the North Star.

I intended to take my photos from Wednesday's hike and show you the fun Charlie and I had. Alas.
That will have to wait.

Jason, the Geologist and his Tumbleweed Dogs are coming this weekend so I have to get things set up for his visit.

One night of color.

My good friend Jason, the Geologist, texted me at 7 ish last night and said there was a good chance at seeing the Northern Lights.
I was sitting on the couch with Charlie and reading. Feeling rather sad as it was Veteran's Day and the 11th. 
The 11th hit me hard as it marks 8 weeks that I am missing someone ... and he was a Veteran. In fact I cancelled my gym workout. It was a workout that was honoring Veterans. 

That was just a bit too much for me. I'd decided I'd have a personal pity party and ignore FB and Social Media.

I was not going to get up, but then I walked to the back door and looked out. I could see the Aurora Borealis with my naked eye. It was stunning.

So I set up my camera to photo night skies and took the tripod out to the driveway.
This is what I saw...
👇👇👇

 There were airplanes flying in the left corner, lights from my neighbor across the ridge, and light from our house in the window.

I decided to drive up to the ridge where I watch sunrises and park. Maybe I'd get a better view.

Wow. I was in for a show.

I texted Olive and Cybil so they could check it out. Olive has a beautiful deck on the back of her house. She woke up her little boy and took him out to watch the show.

I sent cell shots to Jason, my son, and got texts from our friends in Missouri. They could see the light show also!

I used my Olympus camera which has Starry Sky Auto Focus on a tripod. I won't bore you with the other settings. But the Aurora was so bright, it blew out the exposure a couple of times!

The temperature was 35 F with a light frigid breeze. I wore insulated boots, coveralls, and a glove. I had to use my right hand to answer texts [I should have just ignored the messages!]. 
I set up the camera to do a star trail exposure and let it run for 19 minutes. It took 456 photos and stacked them in camera.

The colors merged and changed which I thought was crazy wild.

I tried another at 22 minutes. [At least it gave me a chance to stick my hands into my pockets while I sat out of the wind next to the car.]

The colors and the streaks of light were wild. Red and Green and Yellow.

The lights were even in the East. I took this shot looking over another farm not too far away. Their yard lights where quite bright but the sky was brighter.

After about 2 hours, I called it and went home to warm up. Clouds were moving in and I felt ecstatic.

I was somehow convinced that some ol' Veteran I loved had arranged this show for me. 

I went to bed as the clouds moved in.

Charlie woke me at 4:30. He had to get some business done. I followed him out and looked north.

Then I ran back in and grabbed my camera which was still set up from last night. The moonlight even caused a moon shadow on the house and lit up the gravel driveway.

The moon was bright, but I could plainly see the Aurora again.

Off I went to try and get a shot of it from the pasture.

I did several shots, and decided not to drive up to the ridge again.

It even showed faintly to the south.

I took one last shot from the back step and decided to go in and have coffee while the sky started to brighten in the east.

I consider this to be one more 'Once in a Lifetime Event' for me. How lucky am I to live in a relatively dark sky area?

I know it was a natural phenomenon, but I prefer to think that hubby put the show on for just me to cheer me up. It worked.

I'm feeling full of light this morning. Don't let anyone tell you that seeing the Aurora Borealis like this is not uplifting and amazing.

One night of color and a morning with pinks and reds just for me.

Pow! Surprise ending to the day.

I had all sorts of good intentions of finishing up my new minifigures 'portraits' yesterday. But best laid plans ... and all of that.

Charlie and I went for our afternoon hike and checked on the ice in the creek. There still was some! I didn't take pics of it.

While we were in the dry bed part of the creek, I did some rock hunting. I didn't find anything special but I always look just in case. The rock below had moss and grasses on it this past summer. I just thought the patterns were interesting.

I found a lot of places where the moss was sending up shoots of sporophytes for this year. Of course I brought the wrong lens to work with that. But a challenge is a challenge no matter what!

...and then I found old sporophytes with their tell tale color of orange glowing in the sunlight on a log. One can sometimes get pretty decent macro shots even if they are not using a macro lens.

The rest of the afternoon was spent building and sorting while hubby was awake. I'm almost sorry this project is almost complete. I had to laugh on Monday when the Hospice nurse came by. Rich was deep into sorting Lego pieces and just waved at the nurse until he sat down. 

Then as I was getting into bed, I decided to peak a look at social media. A friend had posted a photo from his cell phone about the Aurora Borealis in the sky.

Well, off I went in my coveralls into the summer pasture to take a gander myself.

 The show was just bright enough to see pink with the naked eye, but the camera really picked up the colors along with the stars...oh and a stray airplane flying through the frame.

I did a star trail shot of 15 minutes for fun. I just love the stars swirling in the colorful sky!

It lasted only about an hour and by 10pm it was fading fast.

But I got two last shots in before my camera battery died.

Over the pasture...

and then over our shed.

It was worth losing some sleep over.  All my flubs and practicing night/star/Milky Way photos have finally paid off because I can remember how to set this up quickly and get the job done.

Little me's big adventure...and the Aurora...

 

Hubby has coverage and meals all set up. He and Charlie get a break from me and I get a break from them. All the farm animals are taken care of. The weather looks good and I am so ready to go see my new little granddaughter and of course her folks.

I've decided to stay at a hotel near Lake Michigan and do a bit of shopping, walking, and seeing the sights of the town I used to live in years ago. 

The drive there will be casual. I'll listen to music and take a route so that I can visit a place called Paradise Springs again. I'll feel a bit like my life is untethered and free at least for a little while. That is about the nicest thing I can do for myself.

Last night I saw that we might be able to see an Aurora Borealis show. My neighbor -- who I share the driveway with asked if I was going to watch for it. She said she'd text me if she saw anything and I agreed to text her if I saw anything.

She did text me around 7:30 to say she saw faint pinks in the northern sky and it wasn't even dark yet!

I ran out and got this....

It was very faint to the naked eye but I was ecstatic! I set things up in our little valley and asked my neighbor if she wanted to come down and get the view of a bigger sky. She couldn't, the kids were in bed and hubby was at a meeting.

So I walked up to her place in the woods.
The show was still incredible.

When the skies did this....

I thought it would be fun to do a star trail. The Oly camera I use has a LiveComp setting which detects light movement and adds it to a composite as it happens.

I don't have to take 400 shots and then align them later. 

Each time the waves of color moved, the camera added that to the photo also.

What I ended up with after 25 minutes was wild...

👇

Airplanes and maybe some shooting stars passed overhead.

While the camera was doing its magic Cibyl and I stretched out on the gravel with our cell phones and took shots.

We even walked out to the road where she dropped into the ditch and laid back to view and shoot the sky.

Cellphone shots...

I mean, it was insane and we oohhheedddd and ahhhhhed and giggled like kids. 

Cibyl sent me a chart explaining the colors that we saw:

I took so many cellphone shots that it was crazy. They turned out okay.

But I enjoyed trying to nail something special with the Olympus.

Star Trails above her house when the sky turned red with green and yellow... the Aurora waves were so bright that they washed out the stars in the lower part of the photo.

It felt insane to see the skies turn red at night.

I commented that if it wasn't the Aurora...it would look like the end of the world...

It fluctuated and changed and seemed never ending.

Finally, we called it a night. Her hubby came home and the lights started to fade.

At least...

That is what I thought...

As I came down the driveway, my naked eyes saw something faint in the east...

still going on...

But I was tired and had miles to put on the next morning. So I thought I'd take a finishing shot over our house.

I was so pleased at what showed up.

And the skies lit up!

 

So I had set my alarm for 11pm and thought I'd look out the window to see if I could spot the Aurora Borealis.

I saw nothing. I got a drink of water and then checked my cell phone and social media. A friend of our in Missouri had posted some shots of the northern lights at their house. I scrolled a bit more and another friend had some shots from Madison, from Racine, and some from Viroqua.

I got dressed and walked outside. I looked up in the sky and it seemed their were some faint clouds over the shed.

I used night shots on my cell phone and took a photo.

Green? Weird skies!
Then I realized what I was seeing for the second time in my life. 

It was the Aurora Borealis.

I grabbed my camera and set about to work. I tried to recall the settings I should use and then finally I settled on the camera settings I use for shooting the Milky Way.

I did a bunch of flubs before I realized I was just taking random shots of colors. The lights kept changing slowly and I was mesmerized.

In fact at one point, I just laid on the gravel driveway and let myself enjoy the show. Life is about being in the moment. And man...

I was deep in the moment....

And then my brain simply seemed to explode or maybe implode.

It was crazy. 

I finally decided to just frame the photo with the pines that surround our house.

Looking west.

I decided to see if I could do star trails that include the Northern Lights. I wasn't sure it would turn out well, but if it worked, it could be pretty cool.

I set the camera up for a 15 minute LiveComp with Starry Auto Focus and let the magic happen inside the camera while I laid back down on the driveway to watch the sky do Nature's Artwork.

I got cold laying on the ground but it was worth every minute of it. I couldn't leave if I wanted to. I was stuck watching the lights until they faded away.

Now I understand why people book trips to Norway to go see the lights. They are breathtaking in every way.

They are silent.
They explode your brain cells.
They are musical and magical.

I'm glad I witnessed this.

It will be a night I will never forget.