Up until now I have posted my own photographs on this blog, with very few exceptions. But my brother and his wife went to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, earlier this month to see the Aurora boriealis displays. The photos they brought back were stunning.

Auroras are created when the sun burps plasma full of charged ions into space. When the plasma hits the Earth’s magnetosphere, it energizes the particles already there, causing them to glow green, blue and sometimes red at the Earth’s North and South poles.

The auroras are best seen at night, in clear skies. The clearest skies are when it is coldest, because most of the moisture has been frozen out of the air. And so, my brother and his wife stood for hours in -35o F weather to see the lights flickering across the sky.

One of the things that I enjoy the most about auroras is that they are astonishing in their weirdness — How? Why? There are answers, but the answers don’t begin to do justice to their magnificence.

Enjoy the wonder!