Northern Lights over Port Maitland, NS - August 12, 2024
Northern Lights
The Northern Lights (aurora borealis) are not something we get to see very often in Nova Scotia. Norma and I were chatting about this, and we can only remember one other occurrence, before this past week, when we saw the sky light up at night with dancing lights in the north.
This past Monday night, though, was amazing. I got up at 3 am to try to see the Perseid meteor shower, and when I walked around the north side of our house behind the barn, I noted the sky was quite bright. It didn’t take long to realize that there was a brilliant display of northern lights going on, with bright greens and soft reds across the entire northern horizon. I ran back inside and got my camera and woke Norma up, and then we spent about a half hour with me taking pictures but both of us marvelling at what we were witnessing.
I’ve posted some other images of this event earlier this week, but I saved this one for today – it is of the northern horizon at our place here in Port Maitland, with the Gulf of Maine in the background (you can see a light from a fishing boat at the lower left), the stars above and the rest of the sky filled with the dancing light from the aurora.
An image that was quite by chance, as I was not expecting this event, but I’m always amazed at what Mother Nature throws our way.
Dark skies are worth preserving so that we can see such things!
