With temps at 53 F in West Central Wisconsin, the crystal clear cool skies allowed me to see a bright green halo glowing off to my north starting at 10:15cst PM. Then a mild dance started to occur so I grabbed my gear and out to the country I went. I shot until 2am and again at 4am a slight glow appeared. Auroras in the Summer! Christmas came 6 months early this year.

Photo details: Canon 30D, 50mm, f1.8 lens and SIGMA 17-75 f2.8 lens, ISO 1000, 28 seconds.

"We waited almost a month for some auroral activity, and finally!" says Chantal Steyn, a member of the South African National Antarctic Expedition "wintering over" in Dronning Maudland (Queen Maud Land) at a nunatak named Vesleskarvet. "The temperature was -38^o Celsius when I took these pictures."

Photo details: Sony DSC-P93 digital camera, 400 ISO, 30s exposure

55^o F and mostly clear over Lake Wissota in Chippewa Falls, WI Saturday night and a mild geomagnetic storm was glowing until at least 1am CST and then clouds blocked my view. Wisconsin at it's best. What a treat to see the Northern lights again.

Photo details: Canon 30D, 28 seconds, ISO 1600, f2.8

I was taking the redeye from San Francisco to London when I looked out the window, and got the treat that I seek every day in SpaceWeather, but tend to miss because I live in Santa Barbara. The aurora looked at first like clouds, and seemed to be only yards away. Then I saw that indeed they were The Real Deal. So I got out my Canon 30D with its cheap but excellent f1.8 50mm lens, and shot away. ISOs range from 800 to 3600 (the Canon sensor does very nicely in low light), with most at 800 or 1600. Exposures ranged from one to 3.5 seconds, mostly at aperatures from f3.5 down to f1.8. Longer exposures worked better for colors, though of course risked more blurred motion with stars. Holding still and blocking out light wasn't easy. I made liberal use of the dark blanket provided by United Airlines. The plane, for what it's worth, was a Boeing 777, and my seat was 14a, near the front of the wing. More to the story may be found here.

I saw the aurora alert on your site, then I saw a beautiful display in my sky.

Photo details: Pentax Istdl2, 16mm, 1600 asa, 20s

I checked spaceweather.com too late and I missed most of the show but caught this last bit of the display.

The moon illuminated the sky, but l could still see a little aurora borealis this morning.

Photo details: Pentax Istdl2, 16mm, 800 asa, 20s