The Beauty of the Aurora in Western New York!

I would have rather loved to seeing the northern lights in Spain but we haven't been there since 2018! I probably have a huge hill of old mail and dust awaiting my return to my apartment! 

I'm currently waiting for a 24-240mm Sony lens and it would have been very well-used last night. Instead I took my only wide full-frame 20-70 lens and that was luckily adequate for the whole show. I would have been happier with a lens just a hair wider, and thought of taking the very sharp and lightweight Sony fisheye adapter though that would not fit onto the lens I took!

Looking across Lake Ontario to Toronto at left

         

All the people amazed with the celestial event!

                          

The structures of Old Fort Niagara under the aurora

I even turned my camera to the south, snapping this image of the aurora over the bright Moon!

On the way home, we stopped at the Youngstown NY yacht club waterfront. 

Below and above images created while at the Youngstown NY yacht club waterfront

Again it was still easy to see the aurora, again with streetlights glaring and eyes again totally unadjusted to the darkness....  or rather, the brightness of the aurora! 

After the fact and looking at the Space Weather webpage hours later, again, I think it was so awesome that unknowingly, we had arrived at our selected viewing area of Fort Niagara during its peak levels; it apparently was almost a KP9, which is the highest it can get!! When we arrived at the fort, even with UNadjusted eyes to the darkness, I could see the lights faintly, through my three times operated-on eyes!!

Over the years the wife and I have discussed going somewhere where we could be guaranteed easy viewing of the aurora borealis... Iceland which is fairly "close" to us, and northern Norway, where even my brother has been now to view the dazzling colorful displays! 

Have you seen the northern lights yet?

O M G It's a HUGGEEEE solar storm tonight!!!

Thinking of going out later tonight with cameras at the ready. I have never seen RED in the aurora activity maps ever before!!! Below are screen captures off my S5 of the app I use to determine whether we go/don't go to attempt "seeing" any auroras that might be floating around.

WE were in this area earlier this year!

It was here we watched the simmering night sky from a cabin

Upon arrival, this was my initial focusing image with light pillars at right

Second pix of the night with more light pillars

The smartphone app screen capture below shows the aurora map that we didn't see till we were nearly home at about 3am, Sunday morning (1 Sept). We had NO idea we had just departed our viewing area with another HOT red "excellent" (excellent being VERY dependent on your location!) zone of the aurora heading right to left and closer to where we were last night! Hours earlier, the red displayed below was even LARGER than pictured! Unfortunately, these areas most go to see/snap auroras are dead of data and/or phone service. While we were in the upper peninsular area of Michigan, we were basically without both data and cell reception within an hour of departing to the upper Peninsular, and within an hour and a half of returning to the greater Grand Rapids, Michigan from the upper Peninsular (UP), and it's a 3hour+ drive from where we were just to get to the bridge leading to the UP! 

I must say that in all of my few years of hunting the aurora and viewing such aurora data and pages displaying aurora maps like this below, I have NEVER seen RED at all! Really!

 

At least, we DID see the light pillars, which we have never seen previously! How was your luck if you are in a higher latitude area, and ventured out to try your luck?

Enjoying Michigan's Upper Peninsular

So we have been back in Michigan again, and even took a few days off from our babysitting duties to visit the desolate area of Michigan's Upper Peninsular, also simply known as the UP (pronounced as U - P).

It's about a four-hour drive from Grand Rapids to the north of the  lower portion of the state, and due to its shape, is called the "Mitten". Well, we were at the mitten for a few days and enjoyed it. Then we continued our travels to the UP by crossing the long Mackinac Bridge, then heading north. We met people while visiting Whitefish Point, and discovered we were there during a big birding event. We have never been to a birding meet before, but if there's a way to ID birds easily while snapping away, then why not?

The Mighty Mackinac Bridge connects the U P with the southern areas of Michigan

We had arrived on a Thursday, and while we were seeing a few early bird arrivals, it was still quite early for what was predicted as a big event with bigger amounts of birds due to recent wind storms. While we were there Thursday and Friday, we saw over 15 hawks and over 50 Sandhill Cranes! To make it even sweeter, there were at least five Bald Eagles in the air too!

To be honest, since we arrived at "The Mitten" and crossed the bridge to the UP, we'd seen already an eagle each day, and sometimes even more, and it's always an awesome sight!

One thing we did notice about the UP is that we both had NO cell or data coverage! Almost a week later, we asked a local about  this problem, and were told that only one phone provider services the UP right now. We are both under a different company other than this company, which explains WHY we had NO service! Even after returning to the southern area of Michigan across the bridge, we still had NO service! We actually had NO cell service till after three hours on the road heading south toward Grand Rapids.

Otherwise, we really enjoyed the area! The vistas are fabulous, the people are friendly, and amazingly, the roads are fairly better than in most of Michigan, and MUCH better than the roadways in western New York (WNY)!

While in southern Michigan (south of the Mackinac Bridge) we already have already visited the International Dark Sky Park, and seen some of their area lighthouses. Did you know that Michigan is the one state of the Union with the most lighthouses? I never knew that!

Poor Sheila had to drive through a surprise snow storm that turned to white-out conditions at times while we were in the UP! We got through okay and stopped at a rest area to sit it out, as it continued to snow for a few more hours into the night! Smaller amounts of snow fell during the same week!

As a wrap-up to our UP portion of this trip, we stayed in a lakeside rustic cabin in the southern areas of the UP. For those not knowing the meaning of a "rustic" cabin, that means no TV or phone, wifi or water, no stove, no shower nor sink, and NO indoor toilets. The cabin DID have a tiny refrigerator and a smaller microwave. BUT We had the time of our lives then, and hoping to return once again when most of the hotels, campgrounds, and attractions and landmarks are open; we were told to forget visiting the Pictured Rocks area of the UP, since there may still be NO access to the area due to snow.

Within 3 days of arriving in Michigan, it snowed. Within minutes, this scene was completely white!

As of 29 April, we have now seen the lakes of Michigan, Superior and Huron within a two-day period (they all look alike - very watery). We have seen about five lighthouses during our trip thus far. We have (typically) walked in rain/snow and high winds yet again, though in a new different location, and we have spun yet another few numbers of the first three digits in the odometer of our spiffy minivan camper!

What's the highlight thus far of our yet-to-be-completed travels?

While camping at the UP area near the Tahquamenon Falls, we saw the Northern Lights!!! Even before starting our trip, we knew about a possible sun storm that would give us a great night lightshow during the early days of our UP trip. Though it was cloudy/overcast when we drove up, the overcast sky continued when we drove up to Whitefish Point, but took a detour to camp out under the stars. That night, I woke and looked straight up out the back window of the van. I started to see what I thought looked to be colorless swirling waves in the sky, and Sheila saw the same thing. I would also see what I thought to be a star, then that "star" would begin to bounce all over like a ping-pong ball, all the while the black sky growing lighter with those sky-waves splashing around and around over and over in the sky. After a bit of sleep, I woke again to see the same thing, but this time painted in a bright flaming red color BUT sunrise wasn't for a few more hours. It was so intense that it lit up the leaves of the trees over our van, and again, Sheila saw this too, though it lasted a few minutes only!

No pixs of the aurora BUT I was able to catch a meteor while in the U P

It was all just so amazing! My first probable Aurora sighting!! No pictures unfortunately and it was freeeeeezing and windy!!

Last leg of our trip, the clouds were gorgeous!

While camping, I built a fire then noticed the awesome sparks. This was snapped with my S5 handheld in auto-mode

More awesome clouds along the drive

This has become a familiar sight in our drives West to Michigan

Dramatic skies were not lacking during the drives

A look backwards to the sunset through the rear window

One of the sunsets viewed while at a rest stop