Northern Lights - Bucket List √

These pictures were taken from the back porch of the condo in Barnegat on Thursday 10/10 around 10:18 p.m.  I had seen people posting pictures of the Northern Lights on Tuesday and Wednesday night both from Barnegat and Branchburg but they seemed to be fleeting and not many caught them.  I even went outside on Wednesday night in Branchburg, but nothing was visible with the naked eye. 

With the prediction of visibility being more certain on Thursday night, tips were posted on how to view them with your cell phone camera - the settings to use to get the longer exposure and basically making sure that you were in night mode so the camera could pick up the low level light that the eye cannot see.

We had arrived at the condo on Thursday night to prepare for the kids to visit on the weekend (since cancelled) so I knew I was going ot have an unobstructed view from the back of the condo that faces north.  I waited til a little past sundown but apparently too long because at that time they were very faint.  I had all but given up but saw someone post on FB to "go outside now - they're back" and the post was only 2 mins. old so I had to try again and this time the results were great.

Back in the 60's (the 1960's not my 60's) we were visiting relatives on a Sunday night and when it came time to leave, my uncle walked us out the door and I remember that that was the first time that I had heard of the aurora borealis - the northern lights because he happened to look at the sky and he said that he saw them then.  I'm sure I looked at the sky but I don't remember seeing them - I would have been around 10 at the time.  But I did remember what they were called and as I grew older, after seeing pictures in books and on the internet, always wanted to have that experience of seeing them in real life.  Well, thanks to my iphone I have been able to √ that off my bucket list.