I love awe-inspiring natural phenomena.
Waterfalls, sunrises, sunsets and the ocean are some of my favorite things.
The 2024 solar eclipse blew my mind. I have childhood memories of salt-water phosphorescence that will be with me forever and always. New close encounters with animals fill me with awe and inspiration.
So yeah, it was a pretty big deal that a wild space storm recently sent rainbow colors swirling through the sky above our heads right here in Lewis Center (a Northern suburb of Columbus), Ohio.
My hubby and I saw the Aurora Borealis in Ohio once before, when we lived in Dayton. On Halloween night in either 2003 or 2004, we were walking our dogs when we saw green swirls in the sky and realized it must be the Northern lights.
It’s a pretty rare occurrence here in Ohio! That’s why, when I found out there’s a strong solar storm going on that would make seeing the Aurora possible this far south, I was super excited.
I’ll admit though, my normal sleepiness did take over. I went to bed at the usual time that Friday night after taking our dogs out, looking up at the sky and not seeing anything unusual.
But thankfully, my bestie is awesome and she texted me a few beautiful photos of the lights about 10:30 pm, saying “Check the sky!”
I immediately rallied. I got hubby out of bed and he went to get our kiddo. She opted out of seeing the lights, saying she was sleepy. But hubby and I went outside and saw some faint fuzzy colors, so we got in the car and drove to a location with less light pollution from home and street lights. The parks and beaches near us were packed with people in fuzzy bathrobes out trying to catch a peek at the Northern lights!
It felt like another of those cool, collective, shared moments like viewing the solar eclipse a few weeks back. While looking with the naked eye only produced fuzzy faint colors, looking and taking pics through an iPhone revealed gorgeous swirls of color worthy of “oohs” and “ahhhs.”
E and I drove around a bit, with me snapping photos out the car window and sunroof, but eventually we returned home. There, in our driveway, I took my favorite photos of the night right above our own house. The colors were gorgeous – purple and green, which happen to be my two very favorite colors. It felt like real-life magic the way you could only see the colors through a phone!
What a night that was! I’d love to say we went back out the following night, but after not seeing anything in our driveway and backyard, Z and I gave up. I was exhausted and went to bed. So far, it doesn’t look like I missed anything Saturday night. I know that after this experience, I will always check the night skies both with my eyes and my iPhone from now on, just in case.
You never know when the stars will align and a space storm will bring the Aurora borealis to your door!
